About Aikido Training

It's time to clear up some misconceptions. There are plenty of people out there who consider aikido as a "fighting" martial art. I am not among them.

Before every aikidoka in Asia calls me out, let me be very clear what I mean. I find it very sad that so many people come to aikido with false expectations about what they will and will not learn, and that is what I want to address. First and foremost, for the record, loud and clear, I want to say that I firmly believe aikido training is very important for anyone, martial artist or not. What we learn in aikido is of great benefit to achieve our potential as martial artists and as human beings. However, I do not classify it as a fighting art per se.

Even something like kamae, has no real practical application in a fight. Fights are dynamic movement. There is no time to seek and hold a full kamae shape. However, kamae practice - especially moving from shizentai (natural standing) into kamae is important to develop the habit of keeping the arms in the right shape and connection to our body no matter where/how we move. This is essential in aikido, because if the kamae hand is not strong, we cannot connect and control.

I can read your mind. You are thinking "If it is not a fighting art, why study it?"

My response is simple. Aikido is designed to teach you very practical combat concepts.

In aikido, these are not the techniques themselves. It is really about the concepts the techniques demonstrate that make them useful training tools. And those concepts are VITAL in becoming a good fighter. Technique is the least important part.

Any martial artist with practial experience can see that the attacks used in aikido are simplified and exaggerated. NOBODY really punches like that. It is not very often someone in a fight will bother to grab your wrist, grab both wrists from behind, etc. It is very rare that any of us will have to fight from a seated or kneeling posture. It is very unlikely to consider any of us being attacked with a sword. Again I would say that if we only look at the combat practicality of each specific aikido technique, we will find ourselves disappointed, since aikido as it is commonly taught, is not a combat style. This is done purposefully. If it was not that way, we would only study the techniques (a la Krav Maga) and miss the chance to deeply understand the important concepts and principles that make ANY technique work. We would be distracted. Caught up in the minutea and missing the big picture. The big picture is what we must learn to see.

So...what are these important principles of which I speak? Let's take a look:


1) Body posture/weight shift/balance control
Almost all the techniques are designed to help us learn how to move forward confidently with balance and control, and to shift our weight from one foot to the other using the knees and hips. Great examples of this are tai no henko, hiriki no yosei, shumatsu dosa, ukemi, kamae.

2) Connection
For aikido to work as a fighting concept, we need to be connected to uke. In every technique, we are exploring how to stay connected to uke while we both move. We want to be glued together until the technique ends, so that uke can be controlled and put where we want them to be. When the connection is lost, we learn how to reconnect so control can be maintained.

3) Controlling
Based on the connection, we learn how to control uke's body (torso and head) by connecting to their wrist. Too often, aikidoka think only about the wrist and forget that the whole point is to control uke's body so that it can be moved off balance. Ikkajo, Nikkajo, Sankajo, Yonkajo all control uke's torso using different contact points and principles.

4) Leading
Many of the techniques have a leading element. This is not the same as pulling. When we lead, we actually have to match the speed of uke's attack. Practicing this is how we learn our timing. Having done so, we direct uke to a position where their balance can be taken.

5) Taking Balance
Every technique has as a principal feature the taking of uke's balance. Without doing so, uke cannot be thrown. It is important to look for the balance points and use our techniques to put uke into unbalance, from which they can be controlled.

6) The Line of Power
Posture is what gives us power. When we bend forward or lean sideways, or allow our structure to be compromised, none of our techniques will work. The training to visualize and create a single line of power for our technique is of paramount importance.

7) Avoiding Resistance
Aikido abhors force on force. Instead, we prefer to go around the resistance and take uke's balance away. It is worth looking not only for the connection to uke's body, but also for the places where uke resists, and learning how to go over/under/around that force. This is often a problem for people with strong bodies, who feel the temptation of ego to use strength rather than correct concept and proper technique.

8) Ethics
Aikido techniques are designed and taught in the way they are to develop an ethical framework for the students. The techniques are done specifically to avoid injury to either partner, and ensure safety in the training. Of course this means that "as-is" the basic techniques will not be very effective for fighting. The very fact that we offer "ukemi" to uke, something no one in a real fight would ever do, shows us that the techniques are made to teach the concepts safely. The concepts, however, will be very practical when adapted and applied to a real combat situation.

The Yoshinkan techniques are not specifically to be used in combat the way they are taught as basic techniques. Jiyuwaza comes closer to the real thing, but even that is a bit theatrical (but also useful to learn stress management, body control, and dynamic movement.).

The key is in viewing each technique as a lab to practice all of the above. In doing so, we are exploring the concepts and programming the body to respond correctly no matter what we actually do in a fight.


There is a magic moment where Danny Larusso, the Karate Kid, is frustrated with doing chores he thinks have no fighting application. Then, Miyagi shows him that through those simple chores, unconsciously, he has been learning karate. It is a revelation for him - and should be a revelation for us. True aikido is effortless and natural, and comes from years of training in the techniques, each of which is designed to help us safely learn the fundamental aspects of combat which can be applied to any combat art or combat situation using any technique, aikido or otherwise.

So, in summary, do not expect to be a "badass" through your study of aikido. Do expect to learn a lot about yourself and others, and to form a foundation for any other combat art you will ever study.

Osu!

Close to You

Very interesting point raised by Guro last week about blocking.\
As beginners, we are taught the De Cuerdas style - hand behind the middle of the stick, triangle footwork away from the attack, stick used as primary shield/blocking.

Now as intermediates, we are into the advanced blocking series, which is leading us toward Serrada. What changed?

In the intermediate/advanced blocking, we are no longer shielding/hiding behind the stick. Instead, our primary block is on the attacker's hand or elbow. In addition, our triangle becomes very narrow, and our footwork almost, but not quite, straight in; jamming the attack. WE ARE CLOSE...VERY CLOSE.

Of course, this is logical when we need to use our hand to block. This alone means we need to be close enough to reach the attacking hand, which cannot be done at medio distance. We are no longer moving away from the strike. Instead, we take the force by jamming it right as the attacking movement begins.

The more advanced we become, the closer we get to our opponent. The more directly we intercept and get in. Guro Fred and Guro Guillaume use the phrase "get in" a lot, and now it is becoming clearer. The goal in kali is to get in as close as possible, and every move (even in Hakka/Jun Fan) is designed to close distance and get you into the opponent where you can end the fight quickly. You cannot employ the Serrada style blocking without getting in close.

I am just as fascinated by what I see as I was the first day. There is just so much to learn.

Fight Club Part 2

Tough go in Panantukan last night. At one point I ended up sparring with Max. He's about 25 years younger than me, strong, tall, lean, and well-trained. Max would be a challenging opponent even when I am at my very best. After two hours of boxing and into a 2:30 sparring session I was tired. I was sloppy. My guard dropped. Boom. I took a brilliant roundhouse kick right across the bridge of my nose.

A step back and shake of the head, and I expected a fountain of blood from a broken nose. Somehow, it held together. No break. A few lessons learned though.

1) Have A Strategy
I just went in there swinging, without a specific game plan. This is despite my post a few days ago on dealing with bigger/taller guys. Just wasn't thinking. Boom. I deserved it.

2) KEEP YOUR GUARD UP
I dropped my guard and gave Max the perfect opening. He took it.

3) Know Yourself
Pay attention to when you are getting winded and becoming sloppy.
Recongnize what is happening and adjust for it.

4) Go to the Ground
If you are getting hammered standing up, go to the ground. Take the man down and check his ground game. Very few fighters are truly versatile.

5) Take a Shot
I have been knocked out, choked out, tapped out more times than I can count.
It is important to have felt these things (hopefully in the safety of the dojo) so you are not intimidated by them. In a fight, you can get hit. It happens. Get used to it.

Many times, victory is all down to who has more willpower. Make sure it is you.

I don't feel bad about getting kicked in the face. It has happened before and will happen again.
The most important thing is to try to learn from every situation so you can improve.

I guess my modelling career is over, though :-)

Sarong He!

Oh My God...the new cycle is just the coolest ever! We have a lot to do before I go back to Japan, and it is stuff we have never done before...

The coolest part is our introduction into Pencak Silat, a martial art native to Indonesia, and a core element of the Kali Majapahit curriculum. As intermediates, we are now getting exposed to this fascinating art. I just love it because it is so completely different than anything else. Trapping, groundfighting, close knife work - Silat has it all, and all coming from seemingly impossible angles.

We also start learning the fighting sarong. The sarong is a traditional garment (see photo) worn around southeast Asia. It is a tubelike cloth wrapped around the waist, and of course, can be used for fighting. Initially, I thought this was interesting, but not very practical. After a lesson or two of using it, my mind has changed.

Training in the fighting sarong has application in combat with a variety of similar flexible items: rope, chain, cable, even a towel, t-shirt, or jacket. Flexible weapons wove in very special ways that cannot be understood by training just in stick, blade, or empty hands. The fighting sarong offers trapping, locking and pinning restraints, chokes/strangles, and ties that cannot be done using non-flexible weapons. It is a new dimension to explore. SO COOL.

Previosuly, I trained with nunchake (semi-flexible weapon) and Japanese Manriki-Gusari (weighted chain). There are elements of both that can be applied to fighting sarong.

Of course, study of the sarong, how to wear it, its patterns, and its integral part in the daily
lives of southeast Asian people is an important cultural study. We give respect by learning it well and dressing correctly.

Life in Kali Majapahit is never boring, and this new cycle exposes us to a brand new world of learning. This is a great cycle to end my time here.

See you there!!

PS: in case you were wondering about the title, Sarang He (사랑해) means "I love you" in Korean...I know it's lame, but at least I tried...

First Aid Training

Courtesy of Kali Majapahit, today I spent 4 hours doing a First Aid/CPR certification conducted for free by the Singapore Civil Defence Force.

The training was done by their paramedic specialists and covered basic first aid, CPR, and emergency procedures. We studied different types of injuries including cuts, bruises, fractures, burns, and abrasions. We practiced dressings and learned how to prepare a first aid kit.

This may seem like very simple stuff, but as the trainers correctly pointed out, a big difference can be made in the few precious minutes before an ambulance arrives. Many times it can be the difference between life and death. In the case of a stroke or heart attack, permanent disability can occur after 6 minutes without oxygen. It is important to have basic skills and confidence to act in the event of an emergency.

I am a big believer that our modern school curriculum emphasizes rote memory at the expense of actual learning, repetition over application, and often misses some of the key bodies of knowledge people need to be effective and successful members of society. One of these is a basic understanding of wealth and how money works. The other is basic first aid.

I think every student from primary through high school should have a half day seminar each year in basic first aid. The curriculum should be adjusted for each year and cover basics for how to deal with common situations including diet and nutrition, first aid, CPR, and stress management. This would greatly add to the quality of life for students and increase the likelihood that someone in an emergency would be able to get important first aid while professional medical care is called to the scene.

If you have not done so, please seek out free training at a community center near you.
The life you save could be the life of someone you love.

Timber!!

When you are a scant 5'7" like me, fighting bigger guys sucks. They have longer reach which can be really frustrating. Here are some tips to cut them down to size:

Control the Center Line - The shortest distance between two points is a line, and this helps when you are facing an opponent with a longer reach.

Get Inside - everything you do should be about trying to get inside, where the length of arms and legs becomes a disadvantage. If you stay outside, you are dead.

Slip - Slipping punches and kicks is a great way to close distance.

Take Out the Knees- Take out knees and legs with low kicks.

Go to the Ground - Bigger guys usually have a disadvantage on the floor.

Guntings - When you are at distance, it is important to use guntings to attack the attacker's attack.

As the old saying goes, "the bigger they are, the harder they fall"

TIMBER!!

Leaving On A Jet Plane

That's it. They are gone.
It's been a long week, gradually building up to the fatc that my family would be flying back to Japan today.

Now I am on my own until my master's degree is over - nearly two months. I leave on 11 October. I haven't been alone for this long for nearly 10 years...completely at a loss now for how to feel. All of us crying at the airport this morning was the most heartbreaking moment I can remember.

Ray cried, but at 3 years old he does not fully understand what it means to be apart so long.
He mainly cried because George, his older brother, cried. He wasn't sure exactly what was going on or what to do, but since George cried, he cried.

George cried a lot, and has been crying off and on all week.
He is worried about missing his best friend, worried about missing me, worried about starting his new school next week. It will be hard on him, but he will be fine, and we all need to go through these things in order to learn and grow - to be a bit more independent. The time will come when he will be glad to be away from me, but that is not now; not at 7 years old.

Sanae knows very well what it means to be away for so long.
Lately things have been going pretty well for us, and she has been happy. That has meant I get to be happy too. I wish I was going, too.

All that time alone should be good, right?
Plenty of time to think about things and all that.
No distractions.

I am sure I will have time to do things like read and watch DVDs I haven't been able to.
I am sure I will (eventually) be able to sleep more.

My plans are to train as hard as possible. Every spare moment on the mats.
Change my eating habits. Change my sleeping habits. Change my life.

I expect to go back to Japan in October looking very different.
Fitter, stronger, happier, more focused. Ready to hit the ground running.

I want to have a better life back in Japan.

See you there. Yoroshiku.

The Princess Syndrome

She's back. However, nothing really seems to have changed.
Same vaguely desperate, puzzled expression... I suppose she wonders why things "just don't go her way" or why she is "so unlucky". Years will go by while she waits for something to happen...maybe she will end up getting married and giving up her independence just to be sure someone provides for her...how sad.

She is very pretty, and she knows it.
She is well educated, and she knows it.
The world should be laid at her feet...and...sadly, she knows it.
She's a barbie girl in a barbie world, as the song says.

In psychology circles it is referred to as "learned helplessness", a condition where a person becomes conditioned to do nothing since they expect everything to be done FOR THEM. Maybe it is because they are beautiful. Maybe it is because they know it.

Nothing is more infuriating to me than the belief some people have that the world somehow owes them something. This goes hand in hand with the learned helplessness that society impresses upon women to make them believe they cannot do and be at least the equal of their male counterparts, if not far beyond them. This extends to many of the middle eastern countries that still treat women as "possessions" to be bought and sold, and African societies that still believe they need to mutilate women to deny them the pleasure of a healthy and active sexual identity.
This is the crime of cowardly, weak men who are intimidated by the idea of a strong, capable woman.

I am not a feminist per se - I want everyone, man or woman, to be free to achieve their potential, and I reject any prejudice that would prevent that.

There is no one else to blame for failing to achieve your dreams. No one can make you happy but YOU. Waiting for someone to make you happy will only bring false hope and a lifetime of loneliness.

Each one of us controls his/her own destiny, and writes the book of our lives word by word, line by line - moment by moment. It is the worst of lies to believe otherwise. It is the worst of sins to attempt to persuade someone otherwise.

Martial arts is a great way for women to become empowered. I have seen the training transform women who were timid and shy, lacking self confidence or willpower to go and make their dreams come true. They emerge radiant. Aagain and again I have seen this magic, and it never fails to amaze me.

To me, nothing is more attractive than the idea of a warrior princess - proud and strong.
Maybe she needs to take this opportunity to get into the dojo and train. Soon she will see that she can be the one to get what she wants - there is no need to wait and hope someone will simply give it to her.

Very few "princesses" truly deserve rescuing. Far better for them to rescue themselves.

Red Card!

I was reading a friend's blog and found out about a training injury. Damn.

As you know, my primary consideration for training is SAFETY.
Over my life in the martial arts, I have suffered my share of training injuries, but I am happy to say that I have not caused serious harm to any training partner. Yes, we sometimes inadvertently get a bruise or a scrape - I have gotten and given those. However, I have not injured a partner such that they could not train or were otherwise debilitated.

For me this is a point of pride. As a teacher, it is an ABSOLUTE.
There is no excuse for injuring students. EVER. PERIOD.

At the best, this is a result of a lack of control or poor technique on the teacher's part.
At the worst, this is a manifestation of ego, and displays a flawed character.

I know the counter argument very well.
We are not doing new age ballet tai chi warm fuzzy encounter group hug pyschotherapy.
This is martial arts.
To get the full benefit, we need to train hard. To feel healthy and happy, we need to sweat hard. To discover ourselves, we need to push our limits. To be confident in a real fight, we have to come as close to it in training as we can. This is how we control and master stress and fear. This is how we break through to the other side.

However, this must be done with safety as a primary consideration.
There can be no other way. Fear and guilt have no place in our dojo, except as enemies to be challenged and defeated.

I have made references to martial arts training as a spiritual journey, and likened it even to a religion of its own, with vestments, ceremonies, and heirarchies sometimes very similar to what most of us know from organized mainstream religions. Sadly, this can also include the very same pitfalls that organized religions suffer from: namely, control using fear/guilt, exploitation of the sprititually weak/codependent and blatant commercialism.

In my analogy, teachers injuring students is akin to priests fondling children.
It may happen with alarming frequency. It is most likely under-reported or never reported.
It can have permanent negative consequences for everyone.
It is also completely unjustifiable and unacceptable.

The net result of these kinds of incidents is that students feel fear and apprehension, which instead they should be learning to overcome. Their confidence is weakened. Their trust is broken. They lose faith in the objective of the training. Some of them will stop training or leave martial arts altogether. Some will never come back. Even more horrible is the thought that they will STAY. Like a victim of domestic violence too afraid or weak to leave their abusive partner, the students start to believe that martial arts is about negativity, oppression, and violence, and end up teaching it the same way themselves one day - perpetuating a neverending cycle of misery and ignorance. Nothing could be worse than this.

Many times I meet people who, despite being raised Christian, are now self-professed athiests.
In nearly every case, it was some negative experience they had that turned them away from the church. Their trust was broken. Their faith was shaken. They never came back.

I hope this does not happen. We need good teachers to help build good students. We need teachers who can help us have faith and trust in martial arts as a way of transforming ourselves and growing to become the people we want to be. We need to have some spiritual foundation that we can believe in so that we can explore The Way freely and overcome our limitations.

Absolute Power Absolutely Corrupts.

How Disappointing.

Tight is Right

I wanted to write a bit more as a follow up to the previous post on precision.
It should almost go without saying that being precise in Kali is about keeping tight.
Lately we have been working Ubud, a flowing drill done with hands and sticks.
It is a drill done to develop responsiveness and perpheral-vision response in very short distance (Corto). Sometimes I see students waving their arms like a windmill, or swinging their sticks like they were trying to help an aircraft land on deck. It goes without saying that this is not the desired result.

Not just in corto, but at all times, it is important to keep hands and sticks tight, rather than swing them all around in big, wide circles. Less is more. At any time, we need to be able to recover the center line, recover balance, and remain in contact with the opponent. This is not efficiently done if the arms swing wide.

Try not only to be precise but to keep the motions short and sharp, tight to the body.
This will help you look better and fight better.

Tight is Right.

precision, precision, precision

Guro was on us again yesterday about precision.
As usual, he is absolutely right.

All too often we become preoccupied with going fast or hard during the drills, and we miss one of the most important points of all - precision. Without precision, we look bad and we fight bad. A degree of angle off and we get hit. A degree of angle off, and we miss the target.

Good martial arts is all about precision.
That means that a core element of the training should be attention to detail, and developing precision around footwork, body location, spatial relationship to the opponent, weight shift, breathing.

Kali Majaphit is unique in that we learn precision from so many different points of view.
We study knife, baston, dumog, panantukan, sikaran, kadena. In each of these, precision is critical for the techniques to succeed and for our guard to remain strong. There is little value (other than cardio) in going fast at the expense of precision.

Slow it down. make it exact. You will look better, fight better, and end up understanding far more benefit than you would otherwise.

Off to train. more later.

aikido is for everyone, but not everyone is for aikido

I saw this expression a long time ago.
At the time, since I was studying aikido, it was cool.
It was elitist to think of us as a group of dedicated students that other people couldn't fully understand, and couldn't be a part of. We were different. We were the chosen few.
aikido is for everyone, but everyone is not for aikido. Some just don't have what it takes.
But we did. That's what we thought, anyway.

I was thinking about that expression again today. It made me sad.
If everyone is not for aikido, what can they be for? Do they get ignored? cast aside? forgotten?
I think "MARTIAL ARTS IS FOR EVERYONE, AND EVERYONE IS FOR MARTIAL ARTS"

Regardless of level, or skill, or ability, or intellect.
Especially for those whom we might think martial arts cannot help.
For the weak, the timid, the shy, the infirm. For the people who lack focus, who lack commitment. For people who just can never seem to do anything right. For people who cannot tell right from left. For the losers.
That's right. FOR THE LOSERS.

So many times in my life, my martial arts was all I had to depend on.
One more punch or kick. One more pushup or situp. One more class.
When nothing else in my life was going right, martial arts was.
When nothing else in my life made sense, martial arts did.
I focused on just what was in front of me and tried to get through the class.
Afterward, I always felt better. Inch by sometimes painful inch, my life improved.
It has been improving ever since I started.

I never was to have a martial arts world which excludes anyone from the HOPE that the training can give them. The hope that they can improve and grow and change. We all can. That little thread of hope was all I had to hang onto sometimes.

Bring the losers - they will become winners in martial arts.

IT'S FOR EVERYONE!! IT CAN BE FOR YOU, TOO.

Give The Gift

Someone new starting a new life.
They asked. I explained. They saw. They liked.
Soon they will embark on their voyage in the martial arts.
It is a sacred journey that can truly take you anywhere you want to go.

My own journey in the martial arts started nearly 30 years ago.
I had my first day on the mats like everybody does. Since then my life has changed so much. I cannot begin to count all the great things martial arts training has given me. Where would I even start??

For those of you, my brothers and sisters, you know just what I mean.
Martial arts has changed you. It has made you better. I don't just mean stronger, faster, more flexible. I mean it has given you courage and confidence, helped you overcome your shyness or lack of focus, helped you find out who you really are. It has empowered you to change your life.

This gift is the greatest gift we can give - the gift of life. The gift of change.
It is the gift we give when we introduce someone new into a life in martial arts.
We show them a doorway to a path that they can walk forever, and that will never stop giving them and the people around them a richer, fuller time on Earth.

GIVE THIS GIFT EVERY CHANCE YOU CAN.

It costs you nothing to tell friends, coworkers, family members, classmates, boyfriend/girlfriend.

Tell them, better still, SHOW THEM the difference martial arts training has made in your life.
They will want it, too.

Together we can change the world one new student at a time.

Rhythm

We hear rhythms every day. All around us. There are big rhythms (seasons, lunar cycles), small rhythms (clocks, wingbeats), internal (heartbeats) and external (raindrops, ocean waves) rhythms. Rhythms that are natural and rhythms we create. Fighting has a rhythm as well.

When you watch fighting/boxing on high speed you can see a "flow" between punches, kicks, blocks, counters. There's the rhythm.

When we train, we should learn about our rhythms. Doing kabka and sinawali, doing ubud and panantukan, we should get a feeling of the rhythm of movement between ourselves and our training "opponent". It is important to become able to quickly identify an opponent's rhythm so that it can be used to advantage. At the same time, it is important to learn to move "off rhythm" or "off timing" so that opponents cannot anticipate our actions.

In training, I suggest to start by listening to music all the time. All kinds of music. Listen specifically for bass beats and drum beats, which are the leading tracks of songs, until you can quickly and easily separate them from the rest of the music and focus your attention on them.
Tap your feet to the drum beat and bass beat to match it. Play. See if you can find the "rhythm inside the rhythm" where you can add a beat in between beats occuring in the bass and drum tracks.

Next begin to work your flow to different kinds of music. Although you may have music you like best, try to use as many different types as you can. Work double stick, single stick, espada y daga, boxing. Feel the timing for moving and hitting. Next, try to get inside the beat and add moves in between notes. Use half beats and quarters to add hits to the movements.

When you have gotten comfortable, get a partner. Take turns doing slow and medium level sparring to music (think of Muay Thai, which has music during the matches). Try to use what you have learned to match your partner's rhythm and then get inside it and control it. Have each partner take turns and be careful to avoid injury.

You will become better aware of how rhythms connect movement, and how to get in between these moments to "create time" for your techniques. This will make you a better fighter and help you explore another important aspect of yourself and your world.

How to Look Good in Black

Today I had a rare opportunity - the chance to see my friend and mentor Morgane test for her Kadua Guro, or black shirt, the equivalent of 1st degree black belt instructor in Kali Majapahit.

It was a long test, two hours, and filled to the brim with everything we do - single stick, double stick, knife, empty hand, boxing, and more. She did a fantastic job.

I am no stranger to seeing various gradings, going back to my first black belt test in 1987. This one was not easy. There is a lot to remember, and it is two hours non-stop. A test like this must be appreciated on a lot of levels.

Technique - the KM curriculum is vast and deep. There is far too much material to cover in even a two hour test. Still, just trying to remember everything must be a real challenge. There is solo baston/doble baston, espada y daga, sikaran, dumog, kadena de mano, panantukan. There is no pre-arranged pattern, so no way to know what Guro Fred is going to ask. You have no choice but to remember it all.

Endurance - two hours feels like forever. Certain aspects of the test are particularly exhausting such as Dumog and sparring. Just being in good enough cardio condition to make it through such a long test requires months of hard work. The final was 10 one-minute sparring rounds with 10 different partners. This is at the end, after nearly 2 hours of hard work already. You have to be in peak physical condition. Anything less and you'd better not even think about it.

Focus - This is the part that impressed me the most. These tests require incredible focus, especially the weapons work and the technical drills. Maintaining your energy, concentration, and focus over a two hour test is an incredible challenge. Most "normal" people have no hope to do this. Most martial artists do not either. You must have muscle memory for the key moves on both right and left, but you need something more. You need instinct.

Stress Management - This is the other part that really impressed me. During a test of such length and depth it is natural to make mistakes. That causes stress and you must be able to let it go and continue. Otherwise, one mistake invariably sets of a chain of mistakes that destroy your concentration completely. You have to be in the moment completely, and able to let everything else go. This is the hallmark of any good professional athlete, and even more so for any good professional martial artist. The test is often designed specifically to push you to your breaking point and beyond. How will you handle it? This mental toughness is at the heart of every true warrior.

Desire - At the end of it all, how bad do you want it? After two hours of punishment, what takes you over the line is raw desire. You have to give yourself completely to the task at hand, and think of nothing else. Only then can you break through to the other side, past your own limitations and into a new dimesion of your own awareness of being. That magic is what it is all about. Teaching you what is really inside yourself.

Another element I really like is the fact that so many people showed up to give support and be training partners. Everyone can now bear witness to how hard this test is, and the level of preparation needed to get through it. We become more able to respect her knowledge, her skills, her energy and commitment, her self-control. She must convince not only Guro Fred and Guro Lila, but all of the rest of us as well. All of us are in our own way part of that success, and it binds us together even closer than before.

I was so impressed. She did a magnificent job; truly worthy of her hard work and commitment.
This is an important milestone on the path. There are very few of those black shirts out there, and they don't come easy. The shirt looks great on her.

CONGRATULATIONS MORGANE!!

*** amended *** the test is actually said to be 4 hours total, including a written exam, and an additional 1 hour boxing test (separate from the 2 hour test above). WOW!

The Angry One

Yes, you know who I mean: Steven Seagal. The Angry One.

Yesterday someone asked me what I thought about him, being that I am an aikido guy myself. That was a tougher question than I thought it would be.

On one hand, he is simply amazing. He is legitimately one of the first non-Japanese to go and live and train in Japan. His trained there until he started his own school in Osaka. A true pioneer.

He was the first person to really show dynamic, practical aikido on film, and was called "The Bruce Lee of Aikido" by many. His early films showcase the effectiveness of what he studied and developed in aikido. People were amazed. I watched "Above The Law" again and again and again. Very entertaining stuff.

At the same time, something just didn't make sense.

It's easy to pick people apart if you try; especially public figures whose lives are under constant scrutiny. Seagal sensei has been married and divorced 3 times and has 6 children along the way.
His movie career got relegated to the straight to video market and never quite made it to the level of other contemporaries such as Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, and Jet Li. Outside of action/martial arts genre, he was not able to make a mark in films.

At some point, his Buddhist views and Eastern philosophy turned from Japan to more esoteric Tibetan philosophy. He met the Dalai Lama, was proclaimed a Tulku, and used his celebrity to further awareness of theirs and other social causes.

I guess what I end up noticing most is that he rarely, if ever, smiles.

After nearly all of my life in martial arts training, I do not want that to be me.
I want to smile, laugh, play, enjoy. I want my life to be full and vibrant, and to be a rich part of the many relationships I have with my friends and family. I want to make a difference in their lives and inspire them. I want to do everything I can to give my family (I have only 1 marriage and 2 children so far) a happy and supportive environment. In my 50s, if I were still trying to be "the tough guy", I would feel I had gone wrong somewhere.

It is the goal of every teacher to give students a moral framework, and help them to explore their spirituality just as they become ready for each new step. This means gently nudging them (or slapping their face if the situation calls for it) to awaken them to their potential as human beings to be happy and healthy - and ultimately to achieve their own unique definition of success. Being "the tough guy" is simply not enough for any of us for very long - surely this is not enough for us as we become teachers and role models ourselves.

What do I think about Seagal-sensei? I admire him for his skill and courage to give himself so completely at such a young age to chase his dreams. I wish his teachers had offered him a deeper and richer platform to find happiness. I wish he could smile more.

I'd love to train with him someday. Maybe afterward we can have a cup of tea and talk about things. It is never to late to learn to smile.

OSU!

(Thanks for the inspiration Shai)

How Do You Feel?

How do you feel when you walk into the school?
How do you get ready for class? What is going through your mind?

For me, every time I suit up into my uniform I feel FIRED UP. I MEAN REALLY FIRED UP.
I am focused on the lesson, and my energy level is at maximum. I feel like a race car on the starting line when we line up.

I work hard. Probably just as hard as you do.
I have a wife and kids that drive me crazy sometimes. Probably almost as crazy as yours do.
At the end of a typical day I am exhausted. The economy sucks; North Korea is scary; oil is too expensive; blah blah blah...you probably feel the same.

Still, my time at Kali Majapahit is for me. My time. I don't owe it to anyone else except me. I only share it with my training partners.
I don't go to make anyone else happy, or to fulfill an obligation to somebody who would be disappointed if I didn't go (except maybe Neal).
I earned it, and I want to make the most of it. Bringing my energy and focus to the lesson helps everyone get motivated to train hard, which again helps me get even more motivated - it is a positive spiral. Energy is an amazing thing. The more you give, the more you get back. Money, sadly, is not like that.

Years ago, one of my teachers told me about the importance of taking off your shoes in the genkan (entry hall) of the school.
He told me that when you take of your shoes, you should imagine taking off your life, the life you have outside, and placing it in the rack outside until the lesson is over.
We are all tired and stressed from our workday when we come to class (except maybe for Guro Fred!). It is fundamentally important that we leave that world outside.
Escape into the oasis of your life in the school, which is different from that. Be free. It is important training in achieving work/life balance that we force ourselves not to think of work when we train. Ours is a moving meditation. A study of zen will teach you that the smallest of actions have consequence and are part of our constant and endless journey toward perfection.

The lesson begins when you take off your shoes and put them in the rack. Do it well.

Playtime!

We had a lot of fun playing with sticks and knives tonight at class.
That's right. PLAYING.

Guro went away from the usual cycle structured curriculum and has been giving us playtime lately. Most of us, especially those of us without children, forget how important playtime is.

Playtime is a chance to have unstructured exploration, to imagine and be creative, to express ourselves freely. Our kids learn so much about the world from playing. Some experts say that children actually learn more from playing than they do at school. I would tend to agree, at least through primary school anyway.

Playtime is an important part of mastery. We have to become familiar with the basic concepts and techniques we use in Kali Majapahit if we expect to ever master them and use them to express ourselves in a martial arts way. It is not enough to simply memorize the movements and commit them to muscle memory. That is the limit of most martial arts, especially the Japanese and Korean styles. FMA is so wonderful in that it demands we keep our childlike mentality and truly create and flow with our own flavor and style.

It goes without saying that this can only be done well after the basics are correct and the foundation is strong. However, unlike other systems, Kali Majapahit makes intermediate and above include this flowing and exploring. It is one of the best things about Kali Majapahit, and one of the most important parts of the training in my view. We must actively cultivate what Zen Buddhism refers to as "the child's mind" which is a mind of wonder, innocence, and curiosity. This is especially true for Kali and FMA, since playfulness is an integral part of the Filipino culture - FILIPINOS ARE ALL ABOUT LAUGHING AND HAVING FUN!

As I have said before, the dojo is our laboratory for the real world, and if you want the real world to be fun and enjoyable - YOU'VE GOT TO PLAY! Our dojo is a laboratory, a playground, an amusement park - make the most of it!!

A Lotta Hilot

Yesterday we had a lot of people turn up for Hilot.

Hilot, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is the Filipino natural healing system as taught in Kali Majapahit. It includes alignments, osteopathy, dietetic, breathing and other Asian natural healing sciences.

I think it is very important for students to attend classes in Hilot.

WHY?

It is unique among Chinese and Southeast Asian martial arts to focus on longevity and health.
Perhaps this is due to their cultural closeness to the roots of Indian Ayurvedic, which spread throughout Asia and ended up becoming well-known globally as yoga, tai chi, shaolin, kenpo, and other martial and healing arts.

Much of this knowledge was lost to the Japanese and Koreans who, by contrast, focused their attention almost exclusively on combat practicality, often at the expense of their health and longevity. Japanese martial art lifestyle is particularly characterized by repeatedly punching makiwara pads (which can do permanent damage to the hands), training in extreme heat and cold, heavy drinking and smoking, and other unhealthy practices. Even Ip Man, key exponenent of Wing Chun, was a heavy smoker, and one would have expected him to know better.

I have written in other posts that achieving fighting prowess should not be the principal goal of our training. Rather, we should actively use the martial arts as a way of exploring who we are, and who the people around us are - ultimately yielding more rewarding personal relationships.
The natural progression of this growth is the goal of longevity. Having found rich and fulfilling emotional relationships, it is natural to want to enjoy them in this world as long as possible, and to learn how to keep our bodies maintained in an optimal state for the maximum time we have to live.

Hilot is a great gateway to understanding our bodies and developing habits of good health that promote longevity. Hilot offers some very practical techniques for spinal adjustment, acupressure, and massage that can increase your everyday quality of life significantly.

I hope that such a high turnout is evidence that students are starting to understand this and welcome it. It is rare to have such a complete system as Kali Majapahit, which offers the most practical blend of combat effectiveness, together with lifestyle counseling for better overall health and happiness. Take full advantage of it!! Learn as much as you can!!

See you at the Hilot seminar!

Sticking It

Just when I thought I had seen it all...

Yesterday we had a mixed class of guests, beginners, intermediates, advanced, and guros. Guro Fred dropped the bomb.


Maybe he felt sorry for our miserable flow.
Maybe he wanted to snap us out of our dream.
Maybe he wanted to show us we could make a quantum leap forward. We did. I think I got years of improvement last night.

He worked us through a drill that can be combined and assembled in so many ways.
It offers countless expression, and even more importantly, shows the framework for us to develop any number of similar drills on our own. My jaw dropped.

Every time I think I have him figured out, and that I get what Kali Majapahit is all about, he comes at me from left field with something like we did last night....the light bulb goes on...and I realize I have a lot deeper to dig. I love it when that happens.

I am not going to explain the specifics here - you should get in there and start your training as soon as you can. There is a lot to learn, and it will take you the rest of your life.

How cool is that? go and get stuck into your Kali...NOW