Never to old - Keiko Fukuda Sensei...

Next time you find yourself grumbling about your aches and pains and thinking you are getting to old for this game think about Judo Sensei Keiko Fukuda from San Francisco in the US. This great lady has just been awarded her 10th dan at the age of 98. And she's still teaching! She is the last surviving student of Judo founder Jigaro Kano himself. Fukuda Sensei was the first woman to be awarded 6th dan in Judo by the kodokan having been held back at 5th dan for 30 years...

Here's a link to a short news article about her: Woman 98-year old awarded judo 10th dan.  And here's a wiki about her : Keiko Fukuda


In this YouTube video where she talks about her life (up to 2006 when she was awarded her 9th dan). It's quite poignant and moving in places, particularly when she talks about making her choice between judo and marriage.



What an amazing lady and ambassador for Judo and women in the martial arts generally.

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My England and keeping the scum in check...

London riots 2011

I’m sure you can’t help but have noticed that England has been at the centre of some very serious rioting and looting last week. I say England not Britain because this has specifically been an English problem not Scottish or Welsh. Shameful acts of wanton criminality and greed have been broadcast all over the world. These were not politically or racially motivated acts; it really was just a case of rank opportunism and consumerism. Shoplifting with violence one commentator called it. What must you think of us?

St. Ives, Cornwall

I’ve heard many people say that ‘it makes you ashamed to be British.’ Well, I’m ashamed of this behaviour by a minority of amoral British people but I’m not ashamed to be British, or English. These acts of arson, rioting and looting are not a picture of England that I recognise. This is not my England or the England that the majority of English people will identify with. I would not like you to be left with the impression that this is the real England.

Perhaps you think I am naïve or have lived a sheltered life?  Well, I admit that I am lucky enough to live in one of the leafy middle-class suburbs of my city (which didn’t suffer any riots by the way). There is a very low crime rate where I live. However, I happen to work on some of the most deprived and notorious ‘sink’ estates in the city. These are estates that regularly witness acts of vandalism, anti-social behaviour, drug trafficking and the occasional murder.

Kinder, Peak District

My job is to visit people in their own homes and advise them on welfare benefits and help them to make applications/appeals. These are some of the poorest people in society. I have to admit that when I first started the job I was quite nervous about driving onto these estates and leaving my car parked in the street. I wondered if it would still have wheels on when I returned. I worried about what kind of people I would be visiting, what the state of their homes would be like. I no longer feel like that. What this job has shown me is that even on the worst estates the majority of people living there are decent, moral, law-abiding citizens who welcome me into their clean and tidy homes and offer me their hospitality – can I make you a cup of tea my dear? 

British Museum, London

I don’t think I am naïve or sheltered from the realities of modern life for some people. And I still don’t think England has gone bad. Britain is a beautiful place to live and for the vast majority of people, a safe place to live. My family and I visited London only the week before the riots and were very impressed with the magnificence of the city. We visited many of the usual tourist places – Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Madame Tussauds, Regent’s Park, Houses of Parliament, Horse Guards parade etc.  We had a great time and felt very safe.

Trafalgar Square

Both the police and politicians have been criticised for their handling of the riots, mainly for not getting a handle on the situation quickly enough. All the senior Cabinet Ministers (including the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Secretary) were all out of the country at the same time – not a sensible policy! (What company would allow all its senior directors to take annual leave at the same time? Who runs the ship?) The poor old police force are damned if they do and damned if they don’t – they get criticised if they are too heavy handed with rioters/protesters and criticised if they are too lenient, which is what happened in this case.  All this meant that it took a couple of days to get things back under control.

Horse Guards Parade

But it is under control now and hundreds of local people have voluntarily taken to the streets with brooms to clean up the mess in their communities – the British Broom Army, British people at their best, helping each other and sorting out the mess. Many people from within Britain and around the world have contributed to the many funds that have been set up to help the victims of these riots – people who have been burnt out of their homes, lost their businesses or been injured or murdered during these riots. Yes, it really has been that bad.

Big Ben

Over 3000 arrests have now been made with Magistrates Courts working late into the evenings and weekends to get through the cases. Justice has come swift and hard for these people with many receiving custodial sentences and/or hefty fines. One guy pleaded guilty to stealing a bottle of water and received a 6 month custodial sentence. Many people have had their cases referred to the Crown Courts where stiffer sentences can be levied. Britain will not tolerate this behaviour and is giving a stern message to people who might involve themselves in such acts in future.

Houses of Parliament

In Rory Miller’s book, Facing Violence, he mentions something that someone told him once about 3% of the world’s population being scum. The full quote was: “No matter what any bleeding-heart tells you, 3% of the people in the world are scum. The trouble is, if you spent 80% of your time with that 3%, you start thinking that 80% of the world is scum.” Three percent of any country’s population will always be scum; we can’t do anything about it except keep them in check. However, we mustn’t let that 3% rule our streets or define us as nations. Britain has its scum – they all came out on the streets last week, but we’ve got them under check again.

Buckingham Palace

I refuse to let the events of the last week define either me or my country. It is just a blip. Britain is still a beautiful place to live in and a great place to visit. I refuse to be cynical and I am still proud to be British.

 Hope you enjoyed some of my views of Britain...

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Pre-emptive striking - how do you define it?

Pre-emptive striking is one of those things that causes me some confusion in relation to self-defence and the law. There has been a lot of talk about it recently in the blogosphere – see: Should a practitioner use the pre-emptive strike for self-defence? And, Mind the Gap – Part V – The Law – a follow up.

Pre-emptive striking IS admissible in law (UK) as a form of self defence “…if [they] honestly believe that the circumstances demand it. This means that a person can use force if they believe that there is a threat of imminent violence if they do not act first.” Louise Smith, Barrister.

My question is – how ‘pre’ (in terms of time, distance and circumstance) can a pre-emptive strike be and still be a legally acceptable defence? People talk about the attack being ‘imminent’ but how imminent do they mean? Within half a second? A few seconds? Half a minute?

There seems to be a continuum which goes from attack through to pre-emptive strike to counter-attack depending on the timing of your strike. Strike after a punch or kick is coming towards you (whether it hits you or not) and you are counter-attacking. Strike before any punch comes your way and you are attacking. Or are you?

Take the following scenarios, read them and ask yourself whether the ‘victim’ became the attacker or merely launched a pre-emptive strike that could be proved admissible in court:

1.       You are a woman, it’s late at night and you are walking home alone. A man approaches you out of the shadows. He seems fairly relaxed in his body language with his hands in his pockets. He tries to talk to you, to detain you but he doesn’t touch you or take his hands out of his pockets.  He smells of drink and you feel uncomfortable in his presence. He is invading your personal space and you feel threatened. You try to walk away but he follows you, still talking to you. You are between him and a wall and you feel penned in even though you can still walk along the street. Ahead the building juts out into the street creating a corner that you can be trapped into. You are confused as to whether he is just a harmless old drunk just trying to talk to you or a predator who has a knife in his pocket.  You start to panic as you approach the corner and decide to strike him to give yourself a couple of seconds to run off. Is this an attack or a pre-emptive strike?

2.       You are a young man, its broad daylight and you are in a public place with other people about. A group of 3 youths approach you and start to taunt you. You recognize one from school days – you had been on the receiving end of his punch in the playground once. They are laughing at you and reminding you what a ‘nerd’ you were at school. You feel threatened and humiliated. They jostle around you and you keep moving backwards. The only place to run to is an alleyway directly behind you but you know it has a dead end. You are worried that you might be on the receiving end of that punch again so to get away you decide to barge directly through them using a shoulder charge. As you charge you think you feel someone grab the back of your coat and you turn and strike the person you think it is. You then run away. Was the shoulder charge an attack, pre-emptive strike or neither? What about the strike?

I don’t find it easy to decide the answers to my own questions regarding these scenarios. Perhaps you can give me your opinion or your definition of a pre-emptive strike….

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Kiai – something you hear or see ?

Isn’t it strange how you think you know what something is only to realise years later that your understanding was a little superficial? There’s always more layers to everything isn’t there?

Kiai is a case in point. Back in April 2009 I wrote a post called Power of the kiai in which I quoted a definition of kiai as 'a projection of sound fused with energy or spirit'. Other people define it as a ‘spirit shout’. Back then I just thought kiai was all about the shouting, a sharp exhalation of breath to tense the muscles and make your punches harder.

I understand kiai a little differently now. It isn’t a ‘thing’ that we do, i.e we don’t do a kiai as we punch; it isn’t merely a stylistic affectation for good effect. It is a part of us, something that we develop through hard training. We demonstrate kiai in the way we execute our techniques irrespective of whether we make a noise or not. Kiai is something that we see when we watch a student (if they have it) and not just something that we hear.

Many people will make a lot of noise but have no kiai, others will train silently but you will be left in no doubt that they have kiai in bucket loads. Kiai is also something you will feel in yourself when you have it.

So what am I talking about now?

According to Iain Abernethy in his book Bunkai-Jutsu, kiai is “…the convergence of all your energies at a single instant that ensure your goal is attainted….It is often accompanied by a loud noise, but simply shouting is not kiai.” He compares kiai to a loud explosion: “An explosion will make a loud noise, but a loud noise is not an explosion.”

The noise of kiai is simply the result of the outburst of energy as you deliver power to your target. It isn’t contrived. The important thing is the explosion of power to the target not the noise, though a scary noise might be useful too.

Kiai is something that starts off internal and becomes external as you execute a move. It is an outpouring of focus and concentration, grit and determination and a will to be perfect and precise. It’s as if you’ve charged up a battery inside of you and it’s discharging at full power. 

I bet you’ve felt it: you’re practising a kata or standing in front of a punching pad/bag; you know an explosive burst is needed; you breathe in through the nose in preparation; you feel energised; then, wham – you execute that explosive movement with a sharp exhalation. You were blind to everything except the target; no other thoughts were in your mind; you wanted it to be the best most perfect move you’ve ever done – you had kiai…you were an explosion.

How do you develop kiai? According to Forrest Morgan in ‘Living the Martial Way’, you need to do five things: “find kokoro; practice haragei; develop kokyu chikara; apply kime and practice kata with utmost seriousness.”

Kokoro means ‘heart’, ‘mind’ or ‘essence’.  It’s often interpreted as never accepting defeat, finding that indomitable spirit within – having the grit and determination to succeed.  It’s about putting ‘heart and soul’ into your training.

Haragei. Hara = centre, gei = cultivation of, so haragei is the “cultivation of the centre of the self”. In other words, it is developing a proper awareness of where your centre of gravity is (2-3 inches below your navel) and knowing how to use it to good effect. To generate good technique you need to be rooted but agile. To generate kiai you need good technique. All techniques in karate require you to be aware of your hara.

Kokyu chikara means ‘breath power’. It’s about coordinating your breathing with the preparation and execution of techniques to maximise power.

Kime is about focus; physical, mental and spiritual focus. You focus your mind, body and intent on achieving your objective. You remain in the moment, you block out all other thoughts; you identify your target and aim precisely at it, focusing all your energy at one point.

So, to develop kiai we must put ‘heart and soul’ into our techniques, understand how to use the hara effectively, coordinate our breathing correctly and focus completely on our objective.

How do we train to develop kiai? Well, most people, including me, will say kata, kata, kata! Through a serious practice of kata we can learn to understand and develop the necessary attributes that lead to kiai. Warning! It takes year of training to achieve kiai..

Next time you are watching students train look for their kiai as well as listen….

Has your understanding of something changed as you've progressed through your training?

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Some post grading challenges...

Before I took my shodan grading I wrote a post called ‘Six things I’m looking forward to post black belt…’  I thought that if I knew exactly what my aims were post black belt then I could hopefully avoid the dreaded ‘black belt blues’. Well, so far so good. No signs of depression or loss of enthusiasm yet!

I thought I’d let you know what I’ve been up to in the last month and whether I’m making any headway with my aims…

1.       Being liberated from grading. That feels soooo….good! I’ve not even looked at the 2^nd dan syllabus yet – no point. It’s just fun to turn up to training and see what happens that session – no expectations, no hoping we are going to focus on something I particularly need to do. It’s just about training in the moment. I’m learning a new kata, Sepai, which is quite interesting but I have at least two years to learn it (along with 2 other kata I need to learn). I’ll probably research the history for Sepai soon to add to my other kata histories.

2.       Consolidating the basics.  The basics are never far away are they? We haven’t spent a lot of time on basic kihon in the senior class in the last month but in the junior class where I assist with teaching then, yes, I’m consolidating the basics! But more on teaching later…

3.       Learning to spell! To me this is about putting things together more, thinking outside the box a little and developing a greater sense of strategy in a self-defence situation. This is not something we have particularly touched on in class recently other than we have been exploring a few ‘street’ type defences in the last couple of weeks. However, I don’t believe that all learning should take place in class so I have been reading and thinking about self-defence at home. Like I’ve mentioned before I think it is important to understand the nature of violence in society and add some context to your self-defence training. I’m currently reading ‘Facing Violence – preparing for the unexpected’ by Rory Millar and this is making me think a lot, so expect some blog posts on this theme soon!

4.       Learning some ‘off’ syllabus stuff. Well the street defence stuff we’ve been doing is certainly off syllabus. It’s very different to the kind of self-defence things we do that are part of the syllabus. We’ve also been doing a little bit of aikido – some defences against knife attacks. I have to admit I find some of the aikido techniques very complicated but that may just be because I’m new to it. I think karate is much simpler and straight forward – that’s got to be an advantage in self-defence.

      I’ve also returned to my kobudo classes which have taken a back seat in recent months. It’s nice to get back to swinging the tonfa again and I was surprised at how much of the syllabus I could remember, though my ability to manipulate the tonfa has somewhat deteriorated at the moment!

5.       Spending more time dissecting and understanding the kata and bunkai. Apart from starting to learn Sepai and running through all the kata I know as a sort of workout we haven’t looked at kata application in the last month so no progress made here at the moment.

6.       Spend more time teaching. This is where most of my energy is being focused at the moment. I’m keen to do the assistant instructors qualification so my instructor and I have increased the pace a bit with teaching. I now quite regularly start the junior class off with a formal seiza bow and warm-up and have taken the majority of the students for 20 – 30 minute sessions of kihon or kumite training.

I’ve also assisted my instructor with some ‘taster’ sessions at a local primary school during their ‘sports week’ recently. This was an all day affair where we gave 7 separate half-hour karate sessions to the different year groups. This was really fun, though exhausting, and the pupils (and teachers) joined in enthusiastically. I’d be quite happy to do this kind of teaching again.

Keeping busy and looking for new challenges seems to be a recipe for preventing the black belt blues. My next challenge is on Saturday as I help out at a kyu grading session as the ‘caller’ i.e the person who does the counting, makes sure everyone knows what they are doing and (for very  junior grades) gives the odd demonstration of the technique. This will be a test of how well I know the junior syllabus! I’ll let you know how it goes…..

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