I want to say a few words about the nature of karate training for the dedicated student. If you’ve taken my classes, you know how unlikely it is that I will say “a few words” about anything karate-related… And yet, here we are :-] . I’ll use a list format to keep it brief. Note that what I say here…
Tai Saba ki Tai sabaki – this Japanese term is used often in the martial arts. It’s usually translated as “body shifting” by English-speaking karate sensei, and that translation is good enough, considering how we use the phrase in teaching. Basically, it describes getting out of the way of an attack and/or positioning yourself advantageously for…
The kanji above reads in Japanese as “en-bu-sen,” or as it’s normally pronounced as a complete word, “embusen.” (It’s just easier to pronounce “em” in the word than “en.”) Japanese karate players recognize this word as referring to the path or pattern that your steps take when you’re performing a kata. If someone was watching you do your kata from…
This is the first in an occasional series of short posts on Gichin Funakoshi’s “twenty principles of karate,” a set of concise axioms describing the Master’s philosophy of applying one’s study of karate to one’s everyday life, and vice versa. The 20 principles were first published in 1938, when Funakoshi (“Shoto”) was 70 years old. The English translation I am…
The week after summer camp, we will debut our “Tiny Samurai” class on Monday and Thursday afternoons from 4:30 to 5:15*. This class will be of immediate benefit to the 3-6 year old children who participate. It will also prepare them to enter our children’s classes, which begin at 7 years old. (Or in some cases a mature child could…
This is the fifth in our series on the legal aspects of “self-defense.” I use quotes to emphasize that we are considering how the law refers to the legal claim made by a defendant who is accused of (and admits to) using force against another person, but asserts that their use of force was justified. We are studying how uses…
This is the fourth in a series covering legal aspects of self-protection, or what is typically called “Self Defense Law.” We’ve covered the first two of five elements of a successful legal claim of “self-defense” from Andrew Branca’s book “The Law of Self Defense.” Those elements were Innocence and Imminence. Today we’ll take a break from that series to have…
Jesse Enkamp, the so-called “Karate Nerd” over in Sweden, has posted a video about “the three kinds of karate.” Enkamp gives a concise and accurate description of the evolution of karate’s purposes from its Okinawan roots to its first appearance as an Olympic sport next summer in Tokyo. The three types, corresponding roughly to late-18th and 19th centuries, early-mid 20th…
We started our training with the Jo last Saturday (November 17). We will continue each Saturday at or near the end of the children’s class. Eventually we will probably have entire classes dedicated to Jo practice. The younger children are using 7/8″ dowel rods cut to 45″ length. See the previous post “A short explanation of the Japanese Jo” for…
The Jo is a Japanese weapon, a short wooden staff with round cross-section, roughly 50 inches in length and an inch in diameter. (There are variations in the dimensions.) In Japan they have been traditionally made of white or red oak. It is one of the simplest of the weapons that are still studied as part of Japanese kobudo, or…