Category: Outside The Dojo

We thought it would be a fun idea for club members to take their club t-shirts away on holiday. And we couldn’t resist the opportunity to gather some holiday photos showing Shiranamikai represented worldwide!

Here are the results. We were so impressed with the submissions that we decided to award a prize to the best entry. So well done to Iman and Sara, photographed against a backdrop of Gaudi’s famous Sagrada Família Cathedral in Barcelona! The Shiranamikai t-shirts are clearly visible and it shows good techniques. Hope you enjoy reading the prize, your very own copy of Masatoshi Nakayama’s Best Karate!

As we come towards the close of London 2012, Shiranamikai karateka look back on an inspiring Olympic games and dazzling displays of power, speed and agility! It’s been nice to see from your tweets that many club members were lucky enough to get tickets to events. If not, then the view from in front of the telly has been great too!

Talking of TV, there was a great BBC documentary about Olympic Champion Usain Bolt a few weeks ago which is well worth a watch (find it here on YouTube). One of the best bits is at about 18 minutes in where we see Bolt in hard training. Panting, sweating and even vomiting.

“Behind the scenes all the work is done” he says, between gasping for air. “A lot of people – they see you run and they say ‘you make it look effortless, you make it look easy’. But it’s day-in day-out sacrifice … just dying. Sometime I wake up thinking: I don’t wanna go today – it’s so hard… but you’ve gotta go.” We all know that talent alone does not make a star performer, but hearing it from the Champ himself really hammers it home! There are no shortcuts – it’s the hours upon hours of hard work and dedication that separate the elite from everyone else.

Away from the sofa and back at the dojo, a query that has cropped up a few times is whether karate will be represented at a future Olympics.  After all, Judo and Taekwondo are represented, so why not karate? It’s a long story, but one of the complications is that there are many different styles of karate, each with different views on governance, technical execution and scoring. And separately, while a lot of folks are not necessarily opposed to the possibility of karate as part of the Olympics, they have concerns that too much emphasis on the sports side of our art could lead to the dilution of its true essence. More on that in a future post!

Interestingly, there is common ground between the ideals of karate and those of the Olympics. Have a look at the three Olympic values, listed below as drawn up Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement. Can you see them echoed closely in the dojo code that we recite at the end of each lesson?

• respect – fair play; knowing one’s own limits; and taking care of one’s health and the environment
• excellence – how to give the best of oneself, on the field of play or in life; taking part; and progressing according to one’s own objectives
• friendship – how, through sport, to understand each other despite any difference

Have you made any new year’s resolutions? Common ones are to get fitter, change your eating habits for the better, spend less, and become more organised. Perhaps you’ve got a resolution that relates specifically to karate. But surveys show that most people’s good intentions will have fallen by the wayside after as little as a few weeks! We stand more chance of success if:

• Our goals reflect a deep desire to achieve or change something
• We break down our goals into a series of challenging yet achievable steps, with an action plan and realistic timeframes
• We share our goals with people who will support us
• We regularly review progress and adapt our action plans accordingly.

In karate, the kyu grading system provides a means to measure progress. But while the grades are useful and motivating markers, we need to be careful not to confuse them as being equivalent with systematic goal setting. From grade to grade, take care to think about more than just the desired outcome (e.g. “to achieve my green belt by March 2012”). More importantly, consider the performance level that you’ll need to achieve and set intermediate goals and an action plan to reflect this.

For example, a few corresponding goals and actions for someone working towards 6th kyu might include these: increase fluency of my current kata by doing 10 good repetitions each evening; develop a better range of hip rotation by practising 50 rotations from hanmi to shomen in zenkutsu dachi per day; Memorise the feel and angles for correct kiba dachi and practise holding this position for 60 seconds each day.

So what would you like to achieve in karate in 2012? Why not make a plan now and regularly update it as you continue to improve? Whether your ultimate goal is to get to black belt and beyond, to become a JKA World Championship medallist, or simply to get fitter and healthier through regular training, we look forward to seeing continued progress in 2012!

The yearly Japan Matsuri is a central London festival which celebrates traditional Japanese arts and culture. This year, the Matsuri was held in and around County Hall, Westminster. Three different staging areas had been set up for demonstrations including one dedicated to martial arts.

Between time spent queuing for tasty food such as okonomiyaki and yakitori, we managed to catch some kendo, niigata, Goju-Ryu karate (considerably different to our Shotokan style) and judo displays. There was also Taiko drumming to enjoy among a wide variety of other performances.

Because of the distance between the various areas and growing crowds, we didn’t quite manage to take

in everything we would have liked to see but it was probably for the best that none of us got to exercise our vocal chords at the karaoke competition.*

So, if you didn’t make it, the photos should give a flavour of what you missed.

To quote the flier, Hyper Japan was billed as “the UK’s biggest J-Culture event… showcasing everything that’s creative, cute and crazy about Japan today”.

I have been studying karate for some years now which has certainly fuelled my interest into Japan’s fascinating and diverse culture. Events like this give a little flavour of what it’s like to visit Japan and in this case the themes on display were a contrast to Japan’s more traditional offerings.

People arriving at the Hyper Japan 2011 exhibition who hadn’t pre-booked, were being turned away because its popularity went far beyond expectations. Fortunately though, one of our club members without a ticket was able to employ their emerging Jedi mind powers to still get in!

Inside the exhibition, there were lots of shop stalls selling toys, plush character goods, books, DVDs and fashion including the famously frilly Baby, The Stars Shine Bright clothing brand (as featured in cult film Kamikaze Girls, released in Japan as Shimotsuma Monogatari). In fact, there was so much on offer that it was difficult not to get carried away, like I did with the Nano Block stand.

As well as the fun stuff, there was also consideration for the earthquake and tsunami stricken Tohoku region of Japan. There was fundraising, a photo exhibition, written accounts from those who have been directly affected by the disaster and a large white sheet for attendees to draw and write messages of encouragement.

The food court was very popular with its reasonably priced bento, hot noodles, tempura and traditional sweets and cakes – yum! Alongside this was the Eat Japan Sushi Awards 2011 final with tasting session and voting. Yakult were nearby too with lots of free samples (thanks Yakult!).

So what else…? Well, there was a J-Pop dance troupe, an interesting aikido demonstration (interrupted a few times by shenanigans inside the Maid Café), a technology showcase featuring a fully articulated robotic hand, a duet of Tsugaru shamisen and electric violin where the two instruments worked surprisingly well together, drawing a large crowd. The console games area featured Nintendo, Bandai-Namco and Konami offering hands-on demonstrations and product launches.

The last place we visited was the Maid Café. It’s difficult to explain in context outside of Otaku (nerd) culture in Japan (and many people would find it just plain weird). But essentially, on visiting a Maid Café you are welcomed and treated (light-heartedly) as if you were a lord or lady in your own home! Simple food is served quickly and comes with handwritten messages or cute drawings in caramel sauce. For a few extra pounds, your maid or butler will even play a few silly games with you and if you win, you get to have your photo taken with the maid or butler as a prize!

If all this looks interesting, you don’t have to wait until Hyper Japan 2012 because our next outing is coming up very soon.

Austin