Epic day of snorkling adventure!

Well, it's currently 15.41 and already it has been an epic day.  Am currently exhausted and writing this on James' computer so any spelling mistakes, please forgive. 

So, today me and Mike went to the Blue Cave for some snorkling.  His wife came with us, not to snork (or whatever the term is, though I like that... to snork) but to translate, liase and generally chill.

Here's the place on a map, it's called Madema Point, with Madema Flat being the beach next door. 

For 3000 Yen we got to snork for an hour and it was amazing! 

The cave is cool, but getting to it is ridiculous, you go down these staris cut into the coral, then you walk along the cliff edge! 

This is the cliff edge!

This is us entering the cave (the guide is with Mike)

The cave itself!

I know the picture isn't great but the water is about 5m deep! 

We sort of floated around in there and watched all the fish and it was awesome! Once your eyes adjusted to the light it really was a blue cave!

This is our guide, she was really nice.  There was another party in there with us and, like all Japanese people, they kept saying, "Soo-GOY!", which means, "Good/amazing/brilliant".  I've learnt that the Japanese don't have loads of words like we do (we have good, but brilliant is better than good and excellent is better than brilliant and perfect is best...), they make up for it by changing intonation and thereby changing impact of the word.  Anyway, there was a loud party and our guide let us stay back in the cave till they left and we got to explore in silence.  So peaceful.

Then we went outside!

This is me :)








Inside the cave my camera worked best as a video camera (I say my camera, but I'd borrowed James' water proof video camera thing) and I got loads of film recorded, so I'll stick them up on a Youtube site.  Outside It worked better for taking pictures, hence the one above. 

We got a hot dog each and crumpled it to feed the fishes, which was cool. 

And then, alas, we needed to come out, our hour had passed! 

This is the outside view of the ledge we had to walk across! 

And this is us in the water.











Once out and dried and set it was time for a drive around, checking out the air bases.  Kadena base, the biggest of them, is HUGE.  It took us about ten minutes to drive past the whole thing!

And then it was time for this place:

This place is an all you can eat meat place!

That's right, all you can eat!!!

For about £8!!

And you cook it yourself!

See, this is your table with a sort of BBQ pit, you put your meat in there and grill is to perfection!

Here's the meat buffet counter:

Between the three of us we had about 6 plates of meat!  I literally ate till I was like... uhhh.  It was a truly Hianese experience (that's a reference that about 6 people will get).  I also had a sweet corn thing, and it was so sweet. 

Mike's wife kindly paid for us, which was very sweet as I was going to as a thank you for taking me to the snorkling place.  Okinawans are so hospitable. 

And now I'm home, I'm stuffed and I need a nap, but I was so psyched I just had to write all this down. 

Jujitsu tonight, full contact sparring!

Sunday

I wrote some slightly embarrassing drunken drivel last night, but I was fairly pissed, so let me off, huh?

Today was up early with a hangover and off to do the Fudoshin/David Loyd fitness challenge.  The challenge involved the following:




1500m run



60 sec leg raise



1 min rest



Bag work



60 sec press ups



1 min rest



500m row



60 sec sit ups



1 min rest



60 sec burpee



60 sec shuttle run

We didn't have a rowing machine as we were doing it on the beach, but we used a giant band and did 100 rows with it.

A good spread of aerobic and anaerobic activities designed to test us.  The point scheme was simple: anything involving a count event, you got a point for each repetition, anything involving timed events was done on fasted getting 12, 2nd getting 8, then 6, then 1.  There was only 4 of us doing it, so we did it that way.  The main group in the UK will have a full spread of 12 points.

Now, me being me, I figured out that I was in no way going to win the 1500m run, but I was certain to make it up in other areas, so I did.

Here's the results:





Event James P Eugene M Oshiro Shun Cody M



1500m run              5.47.06             7.53.3            6.29.32                 6.07



60 sec leg raise          49                     58                   37                     43



1 min rest



Bag work                    1.20.63              52.5  sec           1.20.03               2.19



60 sec press ups            50                  72                    47                       27



1 min rest



500m row                     1.03              29 sec                    1.45                  47 sec



60 sec sit ups                   58               63                            27                       31



1 min rest



60 sec burpee                    32             23                                22                 22



60 sec shuttle run                8               5                                 8                     8








And the points scores are as follows: 







Event                                 James P                  Eugene M                 Oshiro Shun              Cody M



1500m run                             12                             1                                6                              8



60 sec leg raise                      49                                58                          37                              43



1 min rest



Bag work                                   6                                12                            8                                1



60 sec press ups                     50                                 72                          47                                   27



1 min rest



500m row                                  6                                   12                           1                                8



60 sec sit ups                             58                                    63                       27                                  31



1 min rest



60 sec burpee                               32                                23                       22                                        22



60 sec shuttle run                         8                                      5                    8                                               8







Totals                                           221                              246                 156                                     142



Yes, I won.  I took it easy on the run, blitzed the muscle power events and had a very good technique for the bag work.

Yay me!

Am currently tired, however, and it did take it out of me as it is a very good work out: you hit both aerobic and anaerobic zones.  Even taking it easy on the run I still managed to run faster than I have for a while (and God, pulling 102kg is hard).

Then back for a lunch party!

Me, Cody and James played the Wii and James revealed some surprising depth to his Wii skills...

I suppose it would be good to talk about a Japanese cultural thing.  Maybe I should write something cultural every Sunday...

I'll think something up.

Green belt!

I am now a green belt in Matabashi Ryu Karate!

It's been a day.  A rainy day.  I'm drunk as I type this, so any spelling mistakes... who cares?

Anyway, got myself booked in to the blind masseuse pace across the road from Jahanna Kippan.  In Japan, if you're blind, the general expectation is for you to become a masseuse, it's just what you should do, it seems. And across from the Jahanna Kippan shop is a blind masseuse hospital thing. An hour for 2500 Yen, so an hour for about £20.  Not a massage like in the UK, which tends towards long stroking motions, the massage here was more a series of prods and rubs, different and very good.  I came out of there

a) really relaxed

b) a little taller

And cheap for an hour.

From there it was dinner and then on to the grading.

I've experienced jujitsu gradings, both Ishin Ryu, Fudoshin and BJJ (BJJ's grading being, "you're good enough for this level, here you are" some part of me likes this style and, if anything, it's truer to the original Japanese method than anything).  This was... different.

There were kids being graded, and adults.  Arakaki Sensei presided along with 4 other black belts.  I did my basics and my kata, as did everyone else and then the black belts came forward to state what they thought.  Each had a mark sheet and each was scoring out of 10.

I got 3 8.5's and an 8, which is good.  James managed to score a 10, lucky bastard.  Well, skilful bastard.  Several of the grading panel commented on how quickly I had learnt the kata, which was nice.  A very open system, this grading style, with each justifying their mark and commenting on how things could be improved.  Having been there at gradings where there seemed to be some unfairness... this seemed a system designed to eliminate any impartiality.

Afterwards we went upstairs to Arakaki Sensei's house and ate food and got drunk.  It was a good night, people were impressed with my knowledge of Okinawan history.

I managed to borrow some books from Arakaki Sensei (knowledge whore that I am) so that'll be more knowledge for the pile.

As we left Arakaki Sensei told us that there would be no class on Tuesday as that was the Remembrance Day for his dead son, which is sad.  Coincidentally, I told James about Sam today.  It was hard enough burying a student, let alone burying a child.  I'd only taught Sam 4 years when he passed and it cut down to the bone.  It's not right, a parent having to bury a child.  No one knows what a perfect world would look like, but I can take a guess: no parent would ever have to bury their child in a perfect world.  I never got on with his parents, but I wouldn't wish that upon anyone.

I often wonder what he would have made for himself, if he'd not gone and died on us.  Where would he be now?  Would he be happy in himself at last.

Funny, though, his death brought the school together in many ways in our shared grief, and we built on it and moved forward.  When it happened, when we found out on that first school day back from Easter, I was one of the staff who were adamant that we couldn't open for a while yet, my grief was too great, how could we cope?  It was Fraser who said that we should open and be a rock for the kids, and he was right.

I dunno, it was like it was meant to happen, like his time was meant to just end there and our loss would be a source of strength.  Life's funny.  Most days I believe that there's a God and that there's a reason to everything, this despite my being a rational person and recognising the fact that we are on a small planet in a young galaxy of a billion stars in one small neighbourhood of a universe that contains millions of galaxies and, by the way, might be one of a near infinite number of universes.  Other days, the dark days, I don't believe in God and I think that all there is is shit happening, one thing after another.

But that's me, and this is probably the booze talking.

Bed for me.

It's been a good day.

Rest Day

Today is a much, much needed rest day.  My wrists hurt, my shoulders hurt, my back hurts.  I'm taking today off and tomorrow will be my grading.  Then back into the mill on Sunday with snorkling at the Blue Caves on Monday, which should be good. Well, should be better than good.

http://www.natural-blue.net/english.html

Ooohh!

So last night we went to karate and James and me were both feeling stiff and sore, which was good as it gave Arakaki sensei a chance to teach me some more of his massage therapy, some of which involved some strange techniques, but they did work and I can't wait to try them out on any unsuspecting injured people! 

I've been looking back at my posts and I've spoken a fair bit about losing weight and getting back in shape and general body composition changes.  But it's not just my body that's changing, my mind is too.  I'm lucky to be able to step out of my life and look at things, even my own mind set.  I've always been one for self analysis (or navel gazing) and the stress free lifestyle here is certainly letting me do that. 

I remember that when I dropped out of teacher training and went to Falconer I was a bit of a wreck on the inside and I spent a year putting myself back together, one confidence boost at a time and in that process I was sort of ruthless with myself in certain mental habits: I made myself less lazy, less laid back.  I seem to be doing it again, now; not rebuilding myself as such, but ironing out certain mental habits I've formed.  Certainly, I'm trying to take steps back from things, to look at them from a distance instead of up close. 

All the martial arts is effecting my perceptions and my mind's relationship to my body. A good example is the other day when we were working on the clinch; I was looking for another technique to teach the guys.  I had James clinch me and go for a neck twist and I just let my body react to see what it would do. What it did was quite effective (though there is a counter, if you're slow, but there's a counter to the counter and a counter to the counter of the counter...), but I only found it because I was able to turn my mind off and give my reactions free reign. 

But this whole mind/body thing is very Western, we get it from the Greeks.  The Japanese don't quite have the same split in their mind sets, don't have the same split in anything.  In the West we're good/evil, black/white, mind/body, sacred/profane.  Out here there just isn't that split.  I've seen temples hidden behind take aways, I've seen priests in a queue for cans of drinks, mausoleums next to motorways... there is no split in the Japanese mind set, things are as they are.  There is no mind/body split, there's just you.  Your mind and your body are the same thing, they're you.

Maybe I'm starting to recognise this. 

Anyway, rest today.

Earthquakes!

So, yesterday was my first earthquake!

Okay, that sounds really dramatic when it probably wasn't.  It was a 6.1 and it was out at sea, but we felt it in the house.  Me and James were in the lounge and I heard this rustling which I pointed out to James.  He hadn't heard anything so I listened and there it was again, only longer.  Like an animal caught in the gap between the ceiling and the floor above. And then it hit me: we were having an earthquake.

That was it really.  It came, it passed, the end. This house is built to survive way worse.  They do build things differently to the UK, they sort of have to.  The house is basically a reinforced concrete shell that they put together using what is essentially a giant mould to pour the concrete into.  No foundations as that just amplifies the vibrations caused by an earthquake.  So we live in what's basically a giant concrete shell sitting on the hill side.

Anyway, jujitsu last night was fun, we went over basics and then played with the clinch again.

Today I woke up and my body was in "ouch" mode.  Stiff, slow (although I always wake up stiff and slow).  I toyed with the idea of taking the day off, but just called myself a pussy and got myself onto the moped and got on with it.

Okay, taking the moped is lazy, but I was tired.  It was a mistake, however.  Which I'll come to later.  This is a picture of her, by the way:

Isn't she cute?  I call her Betsy II, in honour of the red Ford Granada estate we used to have when I was a kid.  Man, she was a work horse, and so's this Betsy, once she gets going.  Screeches a bit from my weight, mind.  I guess she doesn't quite like someone my my weight getting on her, but who does (geddit, haha!).

Apart from Javi!

HeHeHe!

Anyway, I drag my ass the to Budokan intent upon doing minimal... and of course I don't.  Here's what I did:





Mobility Warm Up
Bench Mark - Press Up 35, Pull Up 5, Chin Up 4, HLR 5, Dip 7, HLAR 10

Low numbers as stiff and sore and just not feeling it.  The idea was to do reps on the deadlift.

Deadlift: 70k x 8, 100k x 5, 130k x 3, 150k x 1 (grip going, switch to over under), 160k x 1, 170k x 1, 180k x 1, 180k x 1, 180k x 1

So much for taking it easy.

Bench: Bar x 20, 60k x 5, 80k x 3, 80k x 4, 90k x 3

Pull Up 6

Bicep (21 protocol) 20k x 45

Dip x 6

So, yeah.  I ignored my body and just got on with it.  Good idea, bad idea?  Dunno.  Have been constantly hungry all day since, however.

Went to Kamefuku for lunch, ate loads and my back seized up.  I sorted it later with some drain pipe time, but I have a theory: because I didn't cycle my back seized up!  I sit very straight on the moped and I don't move much, but the bike is a good cool down and keeps me moving.  That's the theory, we shall test next week!

Karate tonight!

Getting beaten by a 76 year old

Last night James had to baby sit so we didn't go to Karate.  I spent a productive time in the garden however, running through bo and sai techniques, escrima drills and the 3 kata I need to do for my grading on Saturday.  At the end my wrists and forearms were aching. 

This morning we went for a 3 miler, up that long, long hill.  No cramp this time.  Then once back:
3 sets of 5 pull ups
2 sets of hanging leg raises (6+6)
Tanren work with the 6lb sledgehammer.  That was hard on the forearms.

Me and Shun then spent 5 minutes on the Thai pads each.

Shower, food and then moped down to the Budokan for Kobudo!

Got there at 9.30 and we trained through till 12.20!  So that's a fair bit of time on sai and bo.  Mostly sai though, the kata of which I now have the basic pattern of.  We did a little bo work at the end, just to get me striking with it correctly. 

We also spent some time looking at power generation, which I'm starting to get, and then a productive half an hour looking at his karate style, which is called Uechi-ryu.  It has a certain Gojo-ryu element, but is more brutal and direct.  His blocks, as he explained, at just blocks, their hooks, and he proceeded to get me to throw a few punches at him. 

It was an experience, his block/hooks ended up closing down my body and placing me at an angle from which he could finish the combat with either a blow to my totally exposed floating ribs or simply by breaking my arms. 

And there was nothing I could do. 

He literally had me exactly where he wanted me: explosed, weak, at his mercy. A hell of a thing and not something I'm used to.  Especially not something I'm used to having happen when it's a 76 year old man doing it to me. 

We also looked at ways of kicking: always with the hips forward and using either the knife edge of the foot of the big toe.  And his big toe is accurate and strong, getting jabbed by it in the ribs hurt!  I showed him my big right side kick, which is a Muai Thai kick, and he idly blocked it and indicated that he could, from that position, strike at my groin.  No sport here, just combat. 

He also has this sort of a grab/palm heel, which works because of his hand conditioning and hurts! Even his thumb is conditioned.  Ridiculous that this little old man with an Andy Cap cap wanders around with the ability to casually destroy. 

I do love Okinawa.

In other news, the tree house is nearly done!  Now has a wall up, floor in and just needs a roof, a sand down and a paint job!  Next step dojo, which should be cool. 

Jujitsu tonight!

I'm a moron

Okay, so I'm a moron.

Yesterday I went off on the moped, James' one, down to the Budokan.  James was battered to hell from the sumo and so I took the class, getting myself there on the moped.  So brave was I, I spent the first 10 minutes of the journey at 10km, edging up slowly to, eventually, the dizzy heights of 30km!  Wow, yeah.

And I took a wrong turn on the way there, which meant waaay more road time.  Sigh.

Anyway, beneath the seat is a place where you can lock valuables.  Bear this in mind a when I saw saw it my first thought was: DO NOT PUT THE KEYS IN THERE!!!

Anyway... a good lesson looking at the clinch and playing with it.  Finished off with some ground work and I felt very mobile and strong, way more mobile than I've ever felt on the ground, so YAY!

Then we leave.  I buy a can of drink, we chat and everyone's like, "you okay driving?" to which I reply, "yeah".

Mistake number 1.

Mistake number 2 was getting hung up on where to put my drink trash and placing my keys in the storage area whilst I removed the helmet.  I then slammed the seat down.

Mistake number 3 was that the seat didn't shut totally so I paused, thinking, "where did I put my keys?" before slamming it down hard.

I then knew where I had left my keys.

And my wallet.

And my phone.

And everyone else had gone into the darkness.

I got a cab back, got James to pay, then we headed back to the Budokan to break into the bike.  Yeah, no spare keys.  So there we are with a few sets of screw drivers breaking into a bike. Can we do it?  Can we fuck.

But James has his hilux so we're able to stick the moped in the back and drive it home.  Today James went back to the mechanic he bought it from who told him a really easy way to break into the moped, which he did and now I have my stuff back!  YAY!

So, outcome is that

a) I have a funny story
b) James is shocked at how easily it is to break into the moped if you know what you're doing so he's putting nothing of value in there ever again.

Maybe the whole thing was a funny way of someone looking out for me.  Maybe If I'd have driven back at night I'd be tarmac meat.  Or not.  Who knows?

Training today was a circuit:

Short hill sprint
Burpee, spring, jog, 1-5

30k circuit

Deadlift x 5
Clean x 5
Split snatch x 6
Front squat x 5
Military press x 5
Burpee bicep x 5

Completed it twice (hard, the split snatch is a killer)

10 x sandbag twists, 10 sandbag places, 10 sandbag throws
Rest
15 x sandbag twists, 10 sandbag places, 10 sandbag throws
10 Twist throws x 2
10 Overhead slams
Sandbag weighs 20k

Tanren with 8lb sledgehammer  - 10 R/L, 10L/R, 4 helicopters a side

Makiwara Punches + knife hands

6 Pull ups, legs straight
6 HLR, going for height
5 Pull ups

Spent the rest of the day writing.

Karate tonight!

Changes

The weather finally broke last night with strong, strong winds and, eventually, heavy heavy rain fall.  I was having a "I can't sleep" night and didn't manage to get to sleep till 2am, so today was a late wake up and a chance to chill and relax and sit on the balcony and watch the rain come down.  I'm a little stiff from yesterday, so this is all good.

So, today's topic, my body.

This all comes about because of this pair of swimming trunks I have.  A good pair, when I got here they were tight on my waist and loose on my legs; currently, the opposite is true, they're loose on my waist and tight on my legs.

So, what's been happening to me?

Well, all the weight I deliberately gained before I came out here is gone, sort of.  I'm carrying less fat than before I decided to bulk up, but I'm carrying a lot more muscle.  But the muscle isn't bulky, slow moving muscle, it's explosive.  I can jump further than before; whereas before I'd clamber over things that were waist eight, I now idly jump over them.  So that's cool.

Obviously, I'm far stronger, hence the massively increased deadlift, but I'm also more fluid in my movements, if that makes sense.  I'm less stiff, less clumsy.  My throws are faster, easier, more explosive and my foot work is a little better.  My punching has gotten better too.

Visibly, apart from the fat loss and the change in skin tone (and the fact my hair is going blonde and I'm fuzzier..), my arms have gotten bigger; upper arms and lower arms (especially my forearms), my grip strength has improved massively.

My legs are bigger, I'm carrying more mass on them, although my bum has shrunk.  My shoulders are bigger, despite the fact that I'm doing no direct shoulder work (although squatting heavy is hard on the shoulders, as are pull ups, deadlifts, press ups, dips...).  My back seems wider, though this could just be because my waist is now smaller.  My chest remains the same as ever: wide; it just seems to be in my genes to have a big chest, even when I don't do any chest exercises, though I may introduce some this week.

The knuckles on my right hand are slowly changing shape from the makiwara, which is interesting.  I'm hitting the damn thing a few times every day and there is a difference.  If nothing else I'm getting used to the pain.

And this is at the half way point.  What will I look like in 6 more weeks?  Don't know, but it'll be interesting to find out.

The referee's a...

Okay, so Saturday was sort of a rest day.  Was tired after the previous day and sat around the house chilling, did some DIY with James, building the tree house: floor is now in and the uprights are in place, just needs walls and a roof!

Then we went to watch the Matabashi Ryu black belt grading.  James was assisting in the Bunkai, I was just watching.  Their Honbu was this little traditional building with no aircon and one window, almost stuck in the 70's.  It was great.  Present was the Dai-Soke along with 2 Hanshi, 3 Kyoshi, 2 Renshi (I was wrong in my earlier post, Renshi is the first title you get, and the first bar on your belt,  Shihan being a mainland title).  Three individuals, including Arakaki junior graded and passed.  And then we went for a night out, hitting the Seaman's Club, a kind of American bar and then a traditional Japanese bar.  Me and James got back late and slightly tipsy...

This morning I was feeling the drink.  I wasn't hung over, but my energy reserves were low.  I don't drink heavily any more and now, when I do drink, it makes me tired the next day.  The entire Pankiwiez (sorry James, I'll never spell your surname correctly) household decamped to the beach and met up with Shun, Mike and a few others.  We did:

2 mile run
Press ups
Burpees
Dips
2 x 1 minute of leg raises over a ledge
Resistance band crawls
Sprints

Good session, finished with well deserve cool down time in the sea.  Ahhhh!

Between Friday's mega exertion and today's training, my hips were dead, but we still had Sumo, so off we went.

Now, to refer to the title above, I've never been a great fan of the phrase, "The referee's a wanker", but today I was feeling it.  It was a bigger competition today, with a light weight, middle weight and heavy weight division, and the rules were the same: two shoulders on the sand for a pin and a point, one shoulder did not count.  Keep that in mind.

I go in for my first bout with a vague game plan (still with no idea what I'm doing, but there you go), and the other guy gets the first point, fine.  We then restart and he goes to throw, I move into it and turn it into my throw.  On the way down my right shoulder touches the sand, but both his shoulder do and I'm on top in the dominant position.  My point right?

The ref gives it to the other guy!

Now, there's two other judges and they actually come forward to speak to the ref, but his decision is final and the match goes to my opponent.  Okay, it's done, fine.  Dodgy, but fine.

Or not.

James wins his first bout, does really well, developing the strategy of let them come close, pick them up and outside leg hook them.  And the games progress; later, in one of the competitions, someone does exactly what I did, only he gets the point (still the same ref), hold on a second, I think.  James goes through to the point where, if he wins his next match, he's in the final... he ends up doing what I did and the point goes against him! So James in now in play off for 3rd place and eventually takes 4th, but not before the champ, in his match, does the same thing I did and takes the point!

Grr... although they did change the ref after his decision against James, so there you go.  But what a wanker.  People kept coming up to me and sort of being sorry about it, saying I'd do better next time.  At the end of the day the Yokozuna (Champion) came up to me and taught me a few moves, which was very kind of him, he then told me and James what to do with weights and a training regime.  We shall return to sumo on June 5th...

The other thing I found today is that drunk Okinawans like touching me.  One person, fine, but about five of them over the course of the day came up and stroked me, either on the chest, the arm or the leg.  Humm... In fact one guy was chatting to me and his girlfriend (or sister, or daughter) decided to start getting the sand off my leg by stroking it!  I was like, Uh...

A bit of surreality to end the day.

I was going to talk about how my body's changing... but I can't be bothered.  Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.  I am waaaay furrier though, and all the hair on my arms has gone blonde!  Oh, and I got some colour today.

Peace out people.

190kg and such

Grrr... I had a large post written and my laptop crashed.  Irritating.  Still, no point trying to recreate it, just have to start again*

So, this morning woke up and knew it was going to be a hot day, the beads of sweat on my body telling me so.

Shun came over and we trained, did a half mile run, then the 175m hill for 3 sprints.

Then padwork on the Thai pads.  3 X 4 minute rounds.  First round was technical, second round was fast and power based, third round was random pad position and movement with counter attacks.  1 minute rest between each round. Hard, hard session and by the end me and Shun were soaked through with sweat from the heat.

Then breakfast.  I had been intending to go to Kobudo, but I was so exhausted from the workout that I gave it a miss and recuperated till 11, then a cycle to the post office, then a jaunt to the Budokan.

Weight on arrival: 103.4k
Mobility warm up

Bench mark: Push ups 10 (elbow and wrist still battered), Pull ups 9, Chin ups 3, HLR 10, Dips 8, Hanging lat raises 10

Deadlift
70k x 5, 100k x 5, 130k x 1, 140k x 1, 150k x 1, 160k x 1, 170k x 1, 180k x 1, 185k x 1, 190k x 1!
Boo YAH!

Pull up 4

Biceps (21 protocol) 20k x 36, 40k x 15, 50k x 4

Dips 5

Weight at end: 102.6

Cycle to get some food.

I also had some more in the post about changes in my body, but I'll write that tomorrow now.

*That's a Waltons reference

Rest

I'm taking today off.  

I haven't really had an off day since I've come to Okinawa and my body is now demanding an off day.  Both my wrists ache (heavy bag, makiwara), my right knuckles are fairly bruised, my legs are tired, my feet hurt (running, heavy bag), my left elbow is agony (I fluffed a left hand no hands break fall last night), so one day off won't hurt.  

I'm going to go for a walk to the shops in a minute and get some food and that'll be the exercise for today.  

I don't know if I'll cope.  

In other news, last night was fun, we revised headlock defences, grab defences and went through the knife stuff again.  Teaching a technique is so revealing: when someone else is doing it and they cant quite do it, you really need to break it down and analyse it.  I'll be honest, a lot of the knife techniques we've come up with work because my body makes them work, because of how I move naturally.  But just because something works for you (because you subconsciously move that way) doesn't mean that other people will be able to just do it.  

Teaching is hard.

Anyway, food calls!

For the rest of the week...

Friday's going to be running at 6, Kobudo at 9, Deadlifting at 12.

Sat will be a Karate Black Belt grading, which will be fun to watch.  

Sunday will be Okinawan Sumo!  

Humm... I may need to carb load...

Pain

It has been a hard week on my legs.  Karate last night loosened them up a little (and it was so hot in that dojo, proper sweat though gi weather), but this morning they were in agony. 

Not that it mattered, Shun turned up and we trained.

40 metre hill sprints at 45 degree incline. 
Burpee, sprint, jog back, then 2 burpess... up to 10.

Then 10 minutes on Thai pads each, then 2 minutes on heavy bag.  We were dripping sweat by the end, but my punches felt good and what I'd learnt from Yoghi was clearly sinking in. 

Breakfast and I nearly fell asleep, but dragged myself to the Budokan (legs burning, and with my bo staff, which looked fairly comical) for two hours of Kobudo. 

The bo kata of this particular form is utterly different from the bo kata I'd already learnt, and the movements and power generation mechanisms are very alien to me.  But I worked and worked and worked and, at the end, I still did not know the kata.  But I do have a vague understanding of what I should be doing and how to practice.  We also had a fifteen minute side lesson on good punching and kicking, which was great.  Watch out punch bag! 

Actually, on a side note, the knuckles of my right hand are pretty much permanently bruised these days.  I don't really notice it anymore, so the makiwara must be working.

Eventually it was home, shower, eat and then hammock! 

I feel better after it, but I will need some more down time tomorrow.  My body is rebelling a bit and needs some off time, so that's what Thursdays are for! 

Also, finished Meditations on Violence, amazing book. 

Jujitsu tonight...

Um, I think maybe I'm fit again...

Let me explain that; I haven't been unfit for some years now, but there's degrees of fitness - there's average baseline fitness where 50 push ups was nothing major and a mile run or so was okay and then there's the fitness I  had when I took my Shodan Ho, which was really fit, but getting to that fitness, let alone maintaining it was pretty boring.  

Anyway, last night me and James went down the Budokan for 3 hours to go through all the Fudoshin syllabus and tape it so that he would have it.  I was sore and stiff and tied from the morning's training but what the hell?  So we get warmed up and I had in my head about doing all the basic throws, but I was just tired so thought better than brining it up.  

James brought it up and I was like... shit, but let's go for it.  Now there's 23 basic throws and you do them in sets of 4, so that's 92 throws in all, being thrown and throwing.  It's draining and I wasn't looking forward to it and... and it was easy.  We went through them and I hardly got out of breath.  It was like, "Oh... hummm..." I guess all the fitness training was working.  We then went on to go through everything up to orange belt and take apart the knife techniques, analyse them and discard several.  There's a YouTube skit on the way too...  

At the end of our time we were drenched in sweat, it was a muggy night and my gi was literally see through with perspiration!  For a laugh we weighed ourselves on the way out the door and I came in at 102.4 kilos, keeping in mind that I was 104.9 that morning, that's a lot of water to sweat out!  

So... so, I'm wandering around at 104 kilos, roughly, and my throws have never been easier.  Have I gained masses of fitness in a few weeks?  Well, yeah, that's a part of it, I'm really fit currently, and very strong, but with it I've become... looser, more fluid.  I'm throwing without using strength so much, which makes it easier, and my breakfalls are waaaaay better (thank you James), so all those things combined mean that the throws come easier. It's like I'm half way towards maybe knowing what I'm sort of doing.  I may even get good at this one day.  Hummm...

In other news spent today cursing my iphone as it led me a merry way across Naha's greatest hills to meet up with Steve to buy sai and eat food.  Must have cycled 20km today, and with the leg work out yesterday, my legs do not like me at all.  Ate good sushi, bought sai, cycled far in muggy, muggy heat.  A good day.  

Karate tonight, so that should loosen me up!  

Sumo, Kobudo and Garage Masters

Okay, weird title I know, and this'll be a long post, but please bear with me*.

So on Sunday me and James and Shun head off to take part in an Okinawan Sumo competition.  Now, me being me, I'd sized up the average Okinawan and figured that I'd have a fair few kilos over them, and all you had to do was knock the over or push them out of the ring, right?

Wrong.

Okinawan Sumo is a bit of a misnomer.  They called it that, but it's really Okinawan Wrestling, called Tegumi and there were no fat guys in nappies in sight.  You wear a gi and a sash around your waist.  They called it an obi, but it was a sash, long and knotted at the front in a complicated way I couldn't quite get.  It's a clear Chinese or maybe even Thai influence. You also put a little bandanna around your head.  The sash/bandanna is either red or white, depending on whether you're East or West, which is the two entry points to the ring, the ring being a mound of sand.  By the way, it was raining heavily and the wrestling was done outside.

Anyway, even with all this I was figuring that I had a bit of a chance, go for a leg take down, something like that.  But then the rules got explained to me.

1) Two points to win the match, the match lasting 3 minutes with 1 round

2) A point for each time you got your opponent's two shoulders to touch the floor, so just getting him fully on his back.

3) You have to keep your hands on your opponent's sash at all times, and in a certain way too.

4) There are 2 weight categories: under 75k and over 75k  That's it.

It was rule 3 that really fucked me.

I like to use my hands when I wrestle, come up high, get underhooks, yadda yadda yadda.  This was not an option in Tegume.  Your right hand goes underneath and through your opponent's sash, taking an overhand grip towards the his back.  Your left hand grips the sash at his right side in a thumb up grip.  You then vie for dominance and a good throw.

So... So, the rules are explained to me and we watch the light weights battle it out, lots of twisting and sweeping hip throws.  Okay, I think, this should be interesting.  Clearly I need a game plan, but the way the light weights were moving there wasn't much I could realistically use.  I was hoping to be a few along when it came to the heavy weights, so I could see how they approached things.

So, guess who was called out first?

Yeah, little ol' me.  And against the guy who would end up coming 3rd overall.  Smaller then me, but roughly my height and quick.  We got in position, set ourselves up and start to go at it.  He is really athletic and tries a few things to get me, unfortunately instinct kicked in and I ended up on my knees with my hands wanting to go for a leg grab and take down.  Of course my hands are caught in his belt and he just knocks me over.  Point to him!

So, we restart and now my tactic is simple: he's better than me, he can move faster than me and his balance is really good, I'm just going to become really awkward, so that's exactly what I do.  He comes in with several different techniques but I hold him at bay until he gets a perfect position to throw me, whereupon I sat on him and took the point! Whay me.  The next point and the match went to him though, I gave up on waiting, becoming worried about the time and tried attacking and he counter threw me.  Ah well.  As a reward for not getting past the first round I got a 6 pack of beer, 4 cans of green tea (drinking it now) and a big bottle of sake!  Woohoo!

James had Shun in the first round and beat him, but then fought the guy who beat me next and that guy beat James.  As the day progressed I got a better idea of what I should have been doing, so I've gotten James to agree to some sports fighting practice tonight!  There's another wrestling match this weekend coming, so I'm going to prep for that.

So, that's one of the parts of the title of this post explained, but Kobudo and Garage Masters?

Well, there's this guy Marc MacYoung (whorish shamelessless link) who knows more about combat and fighting and surviving than most people ever get to know, and he talks a lot of sense.  And one of the things he talks about is that there are a lot of people in the martial arts world who teach techniques that are great but aren't brilliant, but they look good and the teachers are showmen and they make money and have lots of students because of it.  Fine, that's the way things are.  And then there's the guys training in their garages with maybe a few like minded friends and their techniques (and the concepts underlying their techniques) are so good and simple and deadly that you would never want to come across them in a bad way.  And no one knows these guys exist.  They don't brag, they don't sell books, they don't advertise, they just train and they know.  He calls them Garage Masters, and I think it's a damn good term.

Okinawa, I'm rapidly learning, is like the Mecca of Garage Masters.  Arikaki Sensei is one, and the guy I came across today is another.  Steve Lyons, a Canadian me and James met at Gojo Ryu told us that there was a Kobudo class on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings at the Budokan and today I made it, setting off before the rain.  The teacher teaching the class is Yogi Sensei and the class was Steve, with me turning up and going "hi" and then being taught sai (3 pronged dagger).



I've had the honour and the privilege to train under some truly tough and skilled guys, Shihan Mac Robertson and Fraser being two of the toughest and... and this guy was a little out of their league.  I have no idea how old he is, but he said he'd been doing Karate for 50 years and Kobudo (weapons work) only 30.  Small, stocky, total economy of movement and that wry, relaxed Okinawan Karate Master humour;  punch like an elephant, finger poke of doom (and fingers thicker than my thumb!), all energy at the tip of the movement, at the exactly perfect point.  He said that he'd teach me 2 kata, a sai kata and a bo kata.  And then he took me through the sai kata, pausing every so often to correct my stance and my energy transfers (there was a fun 5 minutes when he taught me how to punch really hard and channel everything into it). I'll be training with him on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from now on.

At the end of the class he gave me his card and I noted that he was 9th Dan in Karate and an 8th Dan in Kobudo.  As seems typical of the Okinawans, he made no mention of this on introductions; he expects no pay and just turns up on Monday, Wednesday and Friday to teach whoever wants to learn.

I intend to learn a lot.  We talked a bit about conditioning and what he does, which is sanchin kata, the gami, squeezing blocks of wood and kicking a post with his toes, stuff I intend to start doing, so watch this space.

I really am such a lucky bastard to be here, with the sheer wealth of knowledge around me.  I wonder what I'll pick up next...

In other news, went to the gym after kobudo and lifted some weights:

Weight: 104.9
Mobility warm up

Bench mark exercises-
Push ups 30
Hanging Lat raises 10
Pull ups 5
Chin ups 3
HLR 10
Dips 6

Feeling tired but dragged myself to the Squat rack

Over head squats - Bar x 5, Bar x 5, Bar x 7, working on form

Squats - working on form, getting everything aligned, going deep

70k x 3, 70k x 4, 70k x 6, 70k x 7, 70k x 8, 70k x 9, 70k x 10.

Dunno where that came from, suddenly decided to start climbing a mountain.

Body exhausted I cycled (slowly, painfully) home, not quite missing the rain but climbing the hill despite the squats.



Ooh, as a side thing, I'm just going to put a link here to my mate Liz's website.  She's just starting out and it helps for people in blogs to link to her as then it give hers a better mark on Google's search ranking.

http://www.carinorosa.co.uk/

Peace out guys

E!


*Anally retentive spelling fascist that I am I actually had five minutes checking on the internet whether it's "bare with me" or "bear with me".  Such an English teacher at heart...

Last two days

Well, I got to the gym on Friday, got a fair bit wet but ah well.

Cycled in 3rd gear all the way there.

Weight was 104.7kg
Did the following

Mobility Warm up
Bench mark routine-
Press ups 25
Pull ups 7
Chin ups 4
HLR 9
Dips 6
Time: 2.38

Then Deadlift
70k x 5, 100k x 3, 120k x 3, 130k x 3, 150k x 2, 160k x 1, 170k x 1, 180k x 1, 170k x 1, 170k x 1,
170k x 1

Only just made the 180k lift, so cut back and did 170 for a bit.  180 was more difficult, possibly because of ride, or maybe approached differently or maybe just hungry.

Pulls up 6, Chin ups 2, Dips 6, Hanging Lat raise 10

Bicep (21's protocol) 20k x 30, 40k x 15, 50k x 3(exhaustion)

Tricep behind head 20k 5 per side

Felt that for rest of day.

Got back, ate loads, rested.  Was going to go to BJJ but Mike rang me up and asked if I wanted to go for a drink with him and Dave.  So I said yeah.

We started off in Naha down some back street in some little place Dave knew.  I'll never find the place again but it served the best ribs I have ever had in my life ever.

EVER.

I mean that.

You know in 'Once Upon a Time in Mexico' there's Johnny Depp's character who has the same thing in every Mexican restaurant he goes to and says that one day he'll have to kill the man who makes the best chilli a it's not the in the correct order of things?  Well, yeah, I understand where he was coming from.  Those ribs were beyond awesome.  I truly felt that I needed to burn the place down as there was no way in hell that such ribs should have been made there.

From there we made our way to Okinawa city, which is about 15 miles away.  There's a big street full of bars in Okinawa city, and at one end of the street is a US army base (Marine or air force or something).  White and black people really stand out when you hardly see them.   So we went to a club... well, what an American calls a club, we call them bars.  And it was nice enough, but the poor bouncer looked really out of his depth.  From there we made our way to Paddy Mack's.

Now, whatever country I go to I make it a point of pride that I visit an Irish bar.  I'd already been to one in Naha, and it was a disappointment, quiet, no Irish people, no music...

This one was different.

Abrasive Irish bartender/owner CHECK
Guinness CHECK
Jameson's CHECK
Darts CHECK
Actual Irish artefacts as opposed to this shit you get in O'Neil's CHECK
The Craic CHECK

All US military personnel as customers and us... it got messy.  Good messy, drunken messy.  Complete with playing some marines darts for drinks (poor guys are shipping out to Afghanistan on Monday), people being thrown out, arguments with the owner over how backward Achill Island actually is and whether or not we do eat our babies there (he's from Dublin)... that kind of stuff.

And then it was closing time and we had to leave and make our way back down the island.  A great night out, and I'll go there again.

'Course, the next day I was paying for it.

Saturday me and James had the kids; he had to work in the morning so I had baby sitting duty complete with hangover.  We watched videos, no stick fighting that morning!

James got back and we wandered over to the beach at Naha to look at the sumo.  Only kid's competitions (and it was rainy as hell) but interesting to watch.  We then headed over to the shopping mall.  Big mall, cinema, arcade, shops...

We decided to see Alice in Wonderland, but had a few hours to wait so we spent some constructive time doing the following:

1) KFC - KFC in Japan tastes different.  Tastes better actually.

That's it there =>

Oooh, huh?

So much for no junk food.






2) ARCADE TIME

Okay, this was my first proper visit to a proper Japanese arcade.  I'd been in a few tiddly ones before, but this was my first outing in a massive arcade.

It was heaven.

I played a game called Elevator Action Death Parade.

No word of a lie, here's proof:

It was a shoot 'em up like time crisis, only you were in an elevator...

Also played a kind of Gears of War game, which was good.

Then there was the Gundamn game.

4 Fully immersive pods with complicated controls, seriously, there was even an instruction manual!  You played in a multiplayer game against other people playing the same game across the country!  Your actions and the disposition of your forces were also shown on a wall screen outside the pod area.

Of course, I had to have a go.

It was 500 Yen and I sat in, got comfortable and... couldn't play.  It kept asking for a card.

So I went out and found a machine that made the cards.  On this machine you needed to design your Gundam Mech and it's pilot and it uploaded that design onto a game card as well as creating your gamer ID.  I didn't have enough change for that as well (another 300 Yen), but next time, next time...

Instruction Manual

Screen with what's happening, pods behind it and make character machine is the blue thing.  Trippy.

Alice in Wonderland was in Japanese, but that's cool.

Now it's Sunday, it's been raining non stop for nearly 18 hours and... and we're going to go see if we can enter the local sumo tournament!  I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

On Okinawa

Raining heavy outside. I'm just waiting for a break so I can get on my bike and get down to the gym.  Bit annoying as there was a Kobudo teacher I wanted to see at the Budokan this morning.  Alas, it is not to be :(

Yesterday was a well needed day, a chance for my body to unwind and relax a little.  Did some stick work, both Escrima drill and bo kata.  Two very different mind sets, but it loosened me up nicely, got a nice sweat on too.

Ended up on TV as well last night: there was a local TV magazine show interested in the Jahanna-Kippan shop, whihc meant that they were interested in Hisano and James.  Ended up being a big segment on James coming to Okinawa and learning the mystical secrets of Okinawan sweet making (tm).  And some clips of him training.  In the training clip there I am, butchering a basic movement drill! Ahhhh, fame!

Anyway, went to Karate last night and worked on my katas.  I do love the little karate dojo, I love the training there.  I shouldn't, it is in no way a contact art, but the pursuit of the perfect movement is something I find myself enjoying tremendously.  The old guy that teaches us, Arakaki Sensei, he has three gold bars on his black belt.  In the UK, that means he's a third dan black belt, and that's what I figured he was. They do things differently in Okinawa, though; they don't get caught up so much in system as we do in the West.  Out in the West, everyone wants to be a 9th Dan Grand Master Ninja Sifu Death dealer and advertise it so everyone knows  (Okay, not everyone, but a lot of people).  Here it isn't about advertising what you can do, here it's about just doing it.  Japan seems different to Okinawa, Japan's belt, rank, belt rank; Okinawa is more a case of... this is what I can do.

I'm rambling.

Where was I going?

Oh yeah, Arakaki Sensei.  He's a 9th Dan and, for a small 67 year old, he's a bit of a monster.  His punch is... his punch is like a whip uncoiling from his body.  You look at him doing it and it's like his arm bends in on itself like a whip and flicks out.  Fast, and at the last second his whole body finalises its structure and delivers the power straight to the tip of the punch.  I really want to figure out how he does that.  I think I'll ask him on Tuesday.  The three bars don't stand for 3rd dan, they stand for teaching titles.  Shihan, Kyoshi, Hanshi.  You get one bar for each teaching title.  Notice no Renshi title.  So, up until you get to 6th dan, there's no additional marks on your belt.

The belt system, the ranking system, it's a very Japanese thing, and the Okinawans have it, but they haven't internalised it the way the Japanese have (you can even get black belts in sushi making!).  But there are some stark differences between the Okinawans and the Japanese, and it's silly to view the Okinawans a Japanese.  True, they are Japanese citizens, but they are Okinawan people - slightly shorter, darker, stockier, more relaxed.

I'd spent years hearing, "Etiquette, Etiquette, Etiquette", how important it was, why we needed to do it, the formality of what we did... and then I walked into an Okinawan dojo, expecting the same and... and it's like a BJJ dojo, sort of.  Everyone stands around, smiles, laughs, chats.  The class begins with seiza and mokso, but there is a very relaxed attitude.  If you make a mistake, no one has a pop at you, we stop every so often to chat about random things (politics, the weather); half way through we have a water break (water is supplied); at the end of the lesson we show what we've learnt, we bow to one another and then we sweep and mop the dojo.  Arakaki Sensei is Sensei, not Hanshi, not any other grand title, he's just teacher.

There seems to be a lot of bullshit in the Japanese etiquette system, bullshit that we in the West have only added to (I once heard of a karate club where the students were expected to bow to their instructors if they met them in the street!); the Okinawans seem to take the whole thing with a pince of salt.  Don't get me wrong, respect is important, and respect is definitely shown, but it's true respect, not respect supported by an artificial etiquette frame work.

Maybe I'm wrong, I'm just visiting.

In other news, I've taken to whoring myself out for money, hence the new links. If you buy anything or click on things from here I get .0005p or something.  It seemed worth a try.

Currently I'm reading this:

(God I'm a whore)

It's a really good book that looks at realistic violent situations and how to deal with them (often by avoiding them).  Unlike some martial arts teachers, there's no gung ho break the enemy to pieces attitude; it's common sense stuff that seeks to avoid violence and then, if it has to happen, how to deal with it and, importantly, it's aftermath.


Anyway, take care all.

Euge

PS
If I'm talking out of my ass regarding Okinawan/Japan etiquette etc., please correct me below.

Hammock day

Today is a hammock day.

It's warm out so I'm going to sit in a hammock and read today.  Do some writing, some thinking, but generally chill.

Last night was a good Jujitsu session, we revised a few techniques and then looked at the illusion of safety most knife techniques give you.  Playing around with James we managed to find quite a good technique that has play over into other areas.  We taped it and it should be up on James' blog at some point.

Body is feeling it today though, hence having a chill day.  I'll go for a walk later, stretch out, do some movement drills and then karate tonight.

Figure, as I'm not writing about training, to write about something else, so... Japanese TV.

I've watched a fair bit of kids' TV of late, if only to try and learn some Japanese (liar, I hear you cry) and I do have difficulty telling the difference between a cartoon title sequence and an actual cartoon.  There's this one I've seen a few times about these kind of anthropomorphic construction machines that sing a song.  It looks like a title sequence for a cartoon, but it is in fact the whole cartoon.

Gets me every time.

Also watched a TV show called Giant Killers.  An Anime Cartoon.  Guess what it's about?




Yeah, a football team.
Tokyo metropolitan football team. There's the young manager who needs to prove himself against a doubting board.  There's players arguing.  There's an emotional Spanish player who's always angry; there's a new French player.  Randomly, there's also some weird old French man who turned up, spoke English to the manager and told him that he wanted to support him in the style of football he wanted to do.  Ended on a bit of a cliff hanger.  Don't know whether to trust that old French guy.  

Japanese adverts are also very, very strange.  Lot's of smiling people and, as far as I can tell, very little obvious link to the product that's being advertised.  Maybe that's the point.

Oh, and they love Tommy Lee Jones.

He's the Boss!

Anyway, my hammock is calling me.

Ouch

Well, after yesterday's long one, a short one.

I'm in pain.

Yesterday's training was Escrima drills (learnt from internet, I know, I know... but it's somethign to doa nd it is hard for me) and stretching and drain pipe rolls for back.

Went to Karate last night, had fun, did well. Now have 3 katas and learnt an interesting massage trick from the Sensei.  He's a qualified masseuse and, now that he's retired, he uses that as a pocket money job.  I'm going to see what else I can learn from him.  He's called Arakaki Sensei and, martial arts being the small world that it is, his first karate teacher was the guy who taught George Dillman.  Or who Dillman claims taught him all his pressure point stuff.

http://www.dillman.com/

Yeah, no touch knock out guy.
Humm...

Anyway, woke up his morning and went for run with James and Shun.  2 miler.  My left heel was playing up a bit but I bit down and got on with it.

I've taken to naming the hills around here, there's The Widow Maker (short and super steep), The Bastard (long and steep) and today we ran The Dragon.  Why's it called The Dragon?  Because it makes you burn!
Seriously, 700m of hill, starting at 30 degree gradient and working on up to 45 degree.  Little Japanese cars were passing us with their engines screaming.  Hell, I was nearly screaming.  Got to the top and my right calve totally cramped up.  Agony.
Hobbled back and we each did 10 minutes on the Thai pads.  Just punching, but God those pads are heavy.

Movement was good, but I was tired quick and my little finger on my right hand was playing up (I borderline dislocated the last digit a few days ago, it went all purple and swollen, now it's just swollen and sore).  My elbows are getting nasty, which is nice and my shoulders still feel loose.

Rest of today is going to be reading, writing and relaxing.  I'll go for a walk later and then we have jujitsu tonight!  Woop!  I have some ideas for things to try...

If my legs stop burning.

On training

I'm having an ouch day today.  Between yesterday's cycling, the squats and jujitsu at night my body is stiff and sore.  Feels good though, in that strange way only people who train can understand.  Today will be a day of stretching, reading, writing and playing with my escrima sticks.  


But before that, the benefits of cycling.


The benefit of cycling everywhere is the ability to think about things.  The benefit of cycling everywhere in the rain is that you have to think real hard to keep your mind off the sheets of rain that are currently soaking you to the skin. I'm getting good at this, at getting into that zen state where real thinking happens and you can just shut out the outside world of rain, cars, pedestrians, other cyclists and, today, a supremely feral one eyed cat.  Perhaps I need to strike a balance more :P
Anyway, I digress, this post comes from my cycle time; in particular, yesterday's cycle time.


Training.
I lift weights, I do jujitsu.
I do a lot of other things, don't get me wrong, but it boils down to, "I lift weights, I do jujitsu".  Why do I lift weights?  Because I enjoy lifting weights.  Weights don't lie to you, they don't try to out smart you or fool you or manipulate you.  The Iron is the Iron and you either lift it or you don't lift it. It's simple, it's my best meditation.  I always lift weights hard, but whenever anything bugs me, I lift weights really hard in that gasping for breath, leave your lunch and maybe a lung on the floor, borderline injury, ride the pain type of way.  Those workouts that only come from pure emotional intensity.  I've tried getting that relationship with running, but it just hasn't been the same: the Iron is my mistress, has been since I was 18, is now 12 years and many mistakes on.


I think I've got it down pat now, my routine, what I need to be doing. I squat and I deadlift.  Squats are for lower body power, deadlifts are for everything power.  I vary between lifting with speed and lifting more slowly with maximum strength.  Currently I'm making good progress in both. I used to do neither, I used to bench press 3 times week and do lots of arm stuff.  Leg stuff came in once every so often, but only on machines, never squats, never deadlifting.  Thought is was bad for you.  What a muppet I was.  To be fair, I had a hell of a bench press, but once you tear your shoulder up, benching is never going to be quite right again.  


It was a guy called Dan Vassiliou who taught me to deadlift and squat.  He was a close colleague for a while till he went his own way and we lost touch, which is a shame.  I used to have a bad back, and the he taught me to deadlift and my back got better.  Funny that, you take something that's weak and sore and you make it strong and the pain just goes away.  


What I'm learning now, which is something I wish I knew 10 years ago, is that it's not about how strong you are, it's about how you get your body to flow into the movement.  My deadlift has gone up since I came here, because I'm suddenly stronger or because my body is less tense and flowing better?  I'm going to go with the second.  Good technique in all things makes doing things easier; in lifting weights and in life and in jujitsu.


Which brings me neatly to my next point: jujitsu (it's like I planned this out whilst I was cycling or something :P).
I've tried Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Wrestling, boxing, Thai boxing, BJJ... jujitsu, the form of jujitsu I practise, is the one thing I come back to always.  I'm currently in a place where I have the time and the mindset and the mental energy to review my jujitsu and why I do it and what works for me.  I'm very lucky in that sense as i don't think many people have this opportunity, the chance to just step out of your life and assess it. Assess why you do certain things.
  
So, jujitsu, what is it and why do I do it?


Well... what is it is simple enough (not really, but that's for a later post), jujitsu is basically a close quarters  combative style, combative being a way of acting in combat.  That's jujitsu.  


Why do I do it?


Okay, honestly, when I started jujitsu I was floating around 19 stone and I was strong but unfit.  I considered myself tough in that was of people who had never been really properly tested and who had built happy little delusions around themselves.  I'd tried martial arts on and off over the years and seeing 'Kill Bill' made me go, "Hey, I'll try it again", so I looked up the local martial arts clubs, found jujitsu and joined up.  Fat, 19 stone and doing a martial art that involves throwing and being thrown with a fairly heavy fitness requirement. 


No one thought I'd last, but I'm funny; I wasn't tough back then, but there was something in me, some little "Fuck you" component that, if someone said I couldn't do something, it'd make me do it.  I would happily run across broken glass to prove people wrong about me, more so now.  Maybe that's all toughness actually is, that "fuck you" response.  You either have it or you don't have it.  Fat bastard that I was, I had it back then, strong and fit bastard that I am now, I have it in spades.  


So, I train, I go from being clumsy, unfit and shit to being okay and fitter.  I think "Hey I can do this" and then, as I progressed through the belts I went from, "I know it all" to, "I need to know more" to, "My skill sets are dreadful, I know nothing," the higher I got, the less I felt I knew.  To be honest, when I started I used strength as a substitute for technique.  Now, years on and stronger than ever, I'm trying my hardest to use technique as a substitute for strength.  


So...


So, the journey, because that's life, isn't it?  A journey from point A to point Z, quicker for some than for others.  Martial arts is the same thing.  In life you can get lost, it's easy enough, and in martial arts you can get lost too.  I admit it now, though at the time nothing would have ever made me admit it; there was a while, a good while, when I got lost.  It was easy to do. 


My first jujitsu club, which we shall refer to as the Old Club, it's ethos was... well, the training ethos was hard training, which is fine, but the techniques required a certain brutality of mindset, and that mindset was a vein that ran throughout the club.  I don't know, I'm having trouble finding the words for this, possibly because this is so close to my heart still.  I suppose, and I am loathe to say this, but it is the closest phrase that I can find, I suppose that there was a sort of Spiritual Corruption.  An acceptance that it was okay to hurt other people. 


Wait, I hear you say, you're doing a martial art, hurting people is part of the game!  


Well, yes, but not like this.  


Here's an example:  There was a Club dinner, a big affair and it was very... nationalistic.  Maybe jingoistic.  My partner expressed her distaste (I had a distaste too, but I wasn't going to say it because... well, more on that later).  It got back to the Head Guy and come the next time he was down on the mat, he chose me for his uke (his demonstration partner).  I knew he would do it and he basically did a 2 hour class showing the most brutal techniques possible, using me to show them.  It was painful, but I got on with it.


What the fuck was I thinking?  What kind of a retard must I have been to have accepted that instead of calling it out as a sad bullying tactic.  


But I was lost.  I'd gotten into and absorbed that Club's mindset, had made it a part of me and was busy hunting for my next belt, getting ready for my next grading, getting ready to take my Shodan-Ho.  I wasn't happy in my personal life, wasn't happy in my training life, didn't even like jujitsu any more, but I kept turning up so that I could get that belt, the Provisional Black Belt.  A fucking belt.  Like it means anything, but it meant something to me then, probably because I was lost and it was a piece of certainty.  A good friend of mine, Fraser, he could see it, and tried to help me out of it, but I didn't want to know.  Why didn't I want to know?  Well, because the challenge of it had blinded me.  The Club put so much energy into telling us how good it was, how being a Shodan Ho was such  a massive thing, how we were the best of the best.  And I wanted to be the best and I knew that the Head Guy didn't think I could do it (and, looking back, didn't like me much either, probably), so I was in full on "fuck you" mode and was quite happy to let the whole thing eat me up.  I neglected friends for that Club, I neglected an important relationship, I neglected work, worse than all that, I neglected myself and the little unhappy voice in me saying, "hold on a second..." I was so unhappy, though, so utterly broken up inside that the little voice in me I just ignored (which made me more unhappy).  I ignored the closeted racism of the Club, the BNP jokes, everything because I was hunting for a belt.  I just embraced the pain and got on with it.  


It started to infect me and twist me, I recognise that now.  My techniques became nastier, I became more selfish, my drive to win was everything.  I adjusted my training to adapt to the grading that was coming up: a 12 mile run followed by 5/6 hours on the mat.  I started running long distance, I dropped doing weights, I dropped weight in general sinking down to 14 stone.  It didn't suit me, the training, the weight loss, it wasn't me and that also served to make me unhappy. 


Looking back I was such a cock and to all those people I pissed off or hurt or treated badly, I am truly sorry.  


But everything in life is a test, I believe that, and I came out the other side. 


I went away with friends to Spain and the holiday I had really healed me, or started to heal me, or made me recognise that I needed to e healed.  I thank them for that, I truly do.  That holiday meant so much to me.  


When I came back I was refreshed and actually able to say "no" to the Club, something I'd had trouble doing before. It was... liberating.  


And in the end the opportunity for me to grade came and I didn't want it. It didn't meant anything to me at all.  Fraser had been saying to me, "Its just a belt", and I came to understand him utterly.  It was just a belt, it meant nothing.  


So I quit.


Around the same time my Sensei had also had enough and had been putting together his break away.  When it happened, I went with him and, well, the rest is history.  


I made some good, good friends in the Old Club, and when we split away, I lost them, which still pains me, even today. But that's the way of things.  I wish them all well.    


Where am I going with this heart on the sleeve emotional vomit?  


Well...


A belt is a belt is a belt.  It might mean something, it might not.  We shouldn't hunt for belts in martial arts, it's meaningless (mostly, maybe not always), think about all those "wanky 10th Dans" as Hatsumi said, did they earn all that?  Your ability to do your art, whatever it is, is not dependant upon a belt.  


But that's not the real thing I'm on about here.


What I'm on about is that we should always try to understand why we do things.  


I can say this now with hindsight, but there you go.  


At the Temple of Apollo at Delphi was inscribed, "know thyself" and it is good advice.


As martial artists you need to know your abilities, know what you can and cannot do.  But you need to know why you do this art and not that art.  Why you favour certain aspects of your art.  You need to know when to train and when to rest.  When to see friends and when to dedicate yourself to perfecting technique.  


You need to know yourself.  


There, I'm done.  


Peace out, I'm going to go and play with sticks!