Still stranded!

Hi! Bagged the computer early this morning (6am) - some holiday eh! There's a greater sense of calm at this time and nobody breathing down your neck wanting to use the computer. Things were pretty hectic in the hotel yesterday evening, lots of people have been sent here by their tour company to wait for flights. It seems that our hotel is the central hub around here. The restaurant was much busier last night and the staff seemed a bit 'stressy'. I suppose they've never had a hotel full of 'refugees' before!

I feel a bit happier now I've managed to contact all the people I need to contact - even my son got up at 6am this morning to e-mail his teachers at school about his exams! It's just a matter of sitting back and playing the waiting game now.

I have not been ignoring my martial arts whilst here. I have been practising various things in the hotel room in little 10-15 minute slots - kata, combinations, bo and sword stuff (with a hairbrush!). Sometimes you just have to improvise! I've also been doing quite a lot of reading and making notes - I'm reading 'The Way of kata' by Kane and Wilder. It's really helping me to understand how to 'read' a kata. My husband and I have even been practising some bunkai together.

I wonder what news today will bring. I see some test flights have been sent up to fly through the ash and returned without incident or any damage to the planes - that must be a good sign? I'm just hoping that the other volcano on Iceland doesn't go off as well. Apparently the government had an emergency meeting last night and are considering various options such as flying people to Spain and then getting them home overland and by ferry - should think that will take about 3 days to get home but that might be better than staying here for weeks. They're even considering bringing in the Navy to rescue us!

Oh well! I'll keep one eye on Sky news and the other on the hotel pool! Looks like it's going to be a nice day again. I'll try and update again later or tomorrow.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Stranded in Cyprus 2

Today is the day we should have been going home! However our flight has been cancelled indefinitely. At the meeting last night we were told that we can stay in the hotel and have been upgraded to full board so we're not exactly slumming it. We have been told to report for updates at 10am and 6pm each day to make sure we are in a position to move quickly if a flying opportunity occurs, though thee are not necessarily any planes or flight crews here to take us home anyway!

There is definitely a growing feeling of cameraderie amongst the people stuck here. Our hotel is mainly English, German and French people so we are all affected. In fact more and more people are being sent to our hotel from other hotels so it's getting pretty busy around here! People who had generally kept themselves to themselves are now chatting and swapping stories. There's a general feeling of 'all being in this together'.

However, despite the fact we are in receipt of a 'free' extended holiday there are various stressors and practical things to sort out. My husband is worrying about work commitments - he should be at an important meeting in London on Tuesday, he has deadlines to meet and lots of other commitments he cannot fullfil from here. The boys will not be able to return to school tomorrow. My eldest son has a GCSE Art exam to complete on Monday and Tuesday and a French oral exam a week on Tuesday - he has no revision materials with him as he was fully expecting to have 10 days to revise when we got home! So tomorrow I have to e-mail the school and ask if they will give him an extension for his art exam and e-mail some French revision materials to us here. Thank goodness for the internet and e-mail!

We have obviously phoned family to reassure them we are okay but I keep thinking of numerous other people I need to notify of things. I realised that our milk delivery was due to recommence tomorrow so I've had to text my neighbour and ask her to put a note out for the milkman. Then my sons reminded me that they won't be able to do their paper rounds next week so I've had to text a friend  and ask her to pop into the paper shop and notify them about that. I've also had to e-mail another friend to tell him I can't give him his usual lift on Wednesday.

It's a strange feeling - my holiday is extended but I'm having to arrange to put my normal life on hold!

I'll try and update you again tomorrow. However, there are only 2 computers available in the hotel and a lot of people wanting to use them so I can't hog one for too long. This is the reason I may not be able to respond to individual comments at the moment - computer time is precious here!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Stranded in Cyprus 1.

Sorry I've not been blogging but I have been on holiday to Cyprus. We have had a great time! The weather has been beautiful, the hotel is fantastic and the food is great.

We are due to come home tomorrow (Sunday) but guess what? I'm sure you already know - VOLCANO!
We cannot get home. We have no idea when we will be able to get a flight.

Fortunately we are protected because we booked a package holiday so the tour company have to look after us and sort everything out. We have been preliminarily informed that we will be able to stay at the hotel until we can fly home (will this be days? weeks? who knows?). There is a meeting at 6pm tonight to let us know exactly what will happen to us!

Other people in the hotel are not so lucky - they booked their holiday as independent travellers rather than a package tour and so they have no protection and no one to sort it out for them. There was a sense of panic this morning as people were trying to book flights and accommodation over the internet. The earliest Easy Jet flight that is bookable is apparently for Thursday! But even then they can't guarantee it will take off. Unfortunately the hotel won't negotiate a discount on the room rates for these people (it's a 4 star+ hotel) so it is going to be very expensive for them.

One woman I spoke to this morning said that she booked her holiday via a tour company (as a package tour, she thought) only to discover that the company had booked their flight via a different tour company. Now neither company will take responsibilty for them and she is frantically making phone calls to sort out a flight and accommodation - I think that really sucks!

This situation is unprecedented - who would ever anticipate that their holiday would be interrupted by a volcano errupting thousands of miles away! I will keep you posted on our situation.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Karate: hard not tense

Karate is often described as a hard style. It is generally characterised by fast linear movements where power is generated through speed and attention to biomechanical principles. However, ‘hard’ does not mean stiff or tense. In fact it is essential for good power generation to be relaxed as possible only tensing the muscles at the last second. This is one of the hardest things for the student karateka to understand and to learn to do.


We’ve all been there! Shoulders raised, biceps contracted hard to try and force through the punch, teeth clenched, movements clunky and stiff. So much energy is expended, so much effort made and yet your punches and kicks still seem slow and weak. Sensei shouts ‘relax, you’re too tense’. You know this but seem powerless to change. It is hard to turn muscle contractions on and off like a light switch.

When you look around the dojo at your seniors – the ones that move well, hit hard and are quick and light on their feet, you realise it’s generally the ones without the big hulking muscles  The leaner, lighter people often move better and pack the hardest punches. Good technique will always conquer physical strength in karate, well at least in the shurite styles. One of the key features of good technique is being relaxed.

So how do you become more relaxed when your natural propensity is be stiff and tense? Well one suggestion that is working for me involves looking at how they do it in the softer martial arts. Like I have mentioned before, my kobudo training is done in a jujitsu club and much of it is based on the principles of jujitsu, which is a soft martial art. Movements are generally slower and circular rather than fast and linear. To move in a more circular way requires you to be more relaxed and to understand how push/pull and rotational movements affect uke’s responses.

However, for me, the biggest aid to learning to be more relaxed is through my sword training. When one has a three foot extension on the end of your arm that you are trying to control with fluidity and precision then it must almost become part of your arm. To move it swiftly and precisely you need to be relaxed more than with any other weapon. By repeatedly practising the various drawing, cutting and stance katas my movements are gradually becoming more relaxed and fluid.

I am discovering that I can move my body around much more quickly when I stay relaxed. I’m starting to understand what it feels like to not have my muscles in a state of tension when it is not necessary for them to be like that. Though the sword seems to lack that requirement for a sudden tensing of muscles at the last second it is never the less teaching me some skills that are valuable for karate.

My kobudo sensei often says ‘let the sword to the cutting, not your arm’. I think the same principle can be applied to karate – ‘let your fist do the punching, not your arm’.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Pinan katas and Itosu's legacy to karate

The Pinan kata series (Pinan means ‘peaceful mind’ or ‘peaceful spirit’) are widely taught to students in a variety of shurite karate styles, generally as beginner’s katas. They are attributed to Itosu Yasutsune (1830-1915) who is said to have adapted them from older kata. However from which kata is less than certain.

Itosu introduced karate into Okinawan schools, systematised it and simplified older kata to make them easier for children to learn. Some sources suggest that Itosu developed the pinan katas from the katas kusanku dai and Gojushiho. Other sources suggest that Itosu learnt a kata called Channan (Chiang Nan) from a Chinese man living in Okinawa and developed the pinan katas from this.

The Channan kata no longer exists although I did manage to find this YouTube video of a kata called Channan which is a combination of pinan nidan and pinan shodan:



Since the kata in this clip does not contain all the pinan katas it is hard to say whether it preceeds the pinan katas or has been invented as a way of linking two pinan kata together.

The Kusanku dai kata seems a more likely precursor to the pinan series. If you watch this video you can pick out several combinations found in the pinan katas:



Itosu simplified the katas by changing many of the more lethal strikes into straight forward punches. He felt it too dangerous to teach the applications of the kata to school children and so taught karate as a form of physical exercise and means of self-discipline. He also re-labelled many movements to disguise their true meaning and dissociate them from their applications. So the use of the word ‘block’ was used to disguise the more lethal strikes, grabs and locks that these movements in the kata really represent.

Without Itosu’s modifications to the katas, and later, Funakoshi’s continuation of the process in Japan, such that karate gained wide acceptance in the Okinawan and Japanese schools programme, karate may not have found its way to the rest of the world. Indeed it may even have died out altogether. However the downside of this watering down of the kata is that the understanding and appreciation of what kata are really about has been lost amongst many karate clubs and systems.

Many of the pinan kata’s movements are often misinterpreted in the study of bunkai with many applications wrongly interpreted as ‘block and punch’ combinations. A skilled bunkai practitioner will see that the pinan katas are in fact a rich source of strikes, locks, grabs, sweeps, throws and ground techniques.

When Funakoshi took karate to Japan in the early 20th century he renamed the pinan katas to Heian katas. They are still known by this name in Shotokan karate. Funakoshi also inverted the names of two of the katas so pinan nidan became heian shodan and pinan shodan became heian nidan.

In Shukokai karate we teach pinan nidan first as it is considered easier for beginners to learn. Here are the five katas:

Pinan nidan:



Pinan shodan:



Pinan sandan:



Pinan yondan:



Pinan godan:



My favourite pinan kata is pinan shodan, followed by pinan yondan. Do you have a favourite pinan?

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.