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Tag: martial arts training

“Tai Sabaki” — Relearning how to move

“Tai Sabaki” — Relearning how to move

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…

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Putting the “martial” into the lines of your performance

Putting the “martial” into the lines of your performance

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…

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Shoto’s 20 Principles: Keep your karate boiling

Shoto’s 20 Principles: Keep your karate boiling

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…

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Top 10 reasons for attending karate class faithfully

Top 10 reasons for attending karate class faithfully

We currently have 3 class days per week. One of my goals is to increase that to 4 during 2019. We’re not quite at the point where that would be justified, but we will get there. Here is my “Top 10” list for regular karate class attendance, somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Not in any particular order. You will progress more quickly. When…

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The Value of Karate as Athletic Training

The Value of Karate as Athletic Training

Lately I have been having conversations with some parents about how karate, when practiced sensibly, can benefit almost anyone physically and mentally, no matter what their starting condition. In talking about this, I mention that many of the Okinawan masters from the 19th century were reported to have been, or described themselves as having been, weak or sickly as children.…

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