Karate Talk

Cross-Linking

As a quick note, I frequently get requests to link to this blog, and many ask me to cross-link back to theirs.  Most of the time I do not post links to these other sites, and I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea, so I'd like to quickly explain:

This blog is purely personal in nature, as I stressed at the very beginning.  I do not in any way, shape or form be supposed to represent Shotokan karate, or our region, or even my own dojo.  That would not be fair to any of the above, and if I was to approach it that way, this would be an entirely different blog.  This is just me thinking out loud, pondering, maybe answering some questions from time to time.  Working out my martial arts (and beyond) issues in this virtual reality.

Therefore, I do not want this blog to represent ANY official martial art, or philosophy, or anything else.  I do not want to be seen as advocating one style over another, or one form over another.  I don't endorse certain dojos or schools or stores. 

So the only links I do from this blog are to other personal blogs, because in this slice of reality, that is all I am interested in exploring.

Reculer Pour Mieux Sauter

Two steps forward, one step back.  That's how it usually goes.  Lately I'm feeling more like I'm going one step forward, two steps back.  Maybe three.  It's sort of a theme right now in many areas of my life, and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't frustrating.

Here's hoping I really am just crouching back, poised to make a real leap soon.

Overtraining

Overtraining can take many forms, but it always has the same result:  Something burns out.  If you overtrain, you can become exhausted mentally, spiritually, or physically.

There is sometimes a fine line between getting into shape and overtraining.  For example, this month we've been doing those double-up trainings:  2 hours instead of 1.  I spent the first week stiff, sore, aching.  The second week, I was just exhausted.  The muscles were shot.  They had nothing more to give -- including soreness.  They just wanted to be left alone!

In other words, it progressed about as usual when you commence a hard workout program.  First, you hurt.  Then you get very tired.  If you keep working, then you find that things start to get easier in a few days, the muscles start responding again and even better than before, and now you're really on the road to improvement. 

As long as you start recovering your strength within a few days of the "dead muscle" period, then you're probably on the right track.  If it takes longer than that, then you've probably overtrained, and may need to back off a bit and start fresh at a slightly more moderate pace.  Vigorous exercise regimens are going to have a tough period initially, but there comes a point where you're doing more harm than good.

I'm borderline right now.  I can't quite decide if I overtrained in the past couple of weeks or not.  I followed a typical progression, but I'm not convinced my muscles are recovering as fast as they should.  I'm eating a lot of protein and drinking a lot of water, and hopefully they'll start rebounding within a couple or three more days. 

Either way, it's unfortunate that my week of "dead muscles" fell at tournament time.  I'm afraid my performance was memorable -- for all the wrong reasons!  That's the thing about really exhausted muscles:  You can ask them to do something, but there's no guarantee they'll respond.  This is somewhat inconvenient in a kata like Empi.  In Empi, you do lots of up and down, springing kinds of motions.  This requires quite a bit of "pop" from your legs.  If your legs have no "pop", then bad things happen.  In my case, I asked my legs to spring back up from low stance, and they thought about it for a minute and then said, "Nope!"  LOL  Instead of springing, I lurched sideways and almost fell on my butt.  Twice.  I hopped around for a little while (twisting my knee in the process), regained balance, and moved on.  I even finished the kata, but there's no question it was fugly!  Hard to tell where I would have finished without that, but quite possibly top 3, based on the scoring.  A few years ago this would have devastated me, but fortunately I'm more sanguine now.  It happens.

My husband had better luck, despite having legs nearly as tired as mine.  He came home with a first in kata, a 3rd in sparring, and a "best male competitor" trophy.  He's quietly delighted, as am I.  He's worked so hard for this, for so long.  He could have sparred better, but it was good enough for this time, and his kata was really amazingly strong. 

He managed to pull out that reserve of strength which I had depleted, but now his is gone.  He has nothing left, he feels like I did 2 days ago.  Tonight, training will be hard for us.  We'll give it what we've got, but that may not be much.

The great thing for me right now is that for the first time in months, my hesitation is purely physical.  Mentally, I'm finally excited again!

A Step Backward, A Step Forward?

Anyone who read yesterday's post clearly grasped my frustration with certain aspects of karate, and probably equally clearly grasped my reluctance, on this occasion, to follow the advice of my Sensei. 

I won't claim that I suddenly did an about-face and think it's all a great idea.  However, I did manage to shove aside a lot of pride and stubbornness, and try to remember that I deeply respect my sensei and his opinions and abilities, and that he doesn't do things without a very good purpose.  Although he has left the decision entirely up to me, he thinks I should reconsider doing Chinte, and as I've already said, I can't argue with that.  I should at least reconsider it. 

That being the case, I also needed to reconsider my initial reaction to his recommendation to start doing Empi again.  If he thinks I should work this kata again, it isn't because he thinks that I can already do it well.  As a sensei, he has no interest in seeing me stop growing.  Generally speaking, if he wants me to work a specific kata, it's because it emphasizes a specific movement or style that he feels I need to work on.  In this case, knowing that I had a good feel for Empi at one time, I had to believe that he felt if I worked that kata for awhile, and got that "feeling" back, then something from that could translate into breaking through my block.  And at that point I remembered that I had switched my second kata from Gankaku back to Bassai Dai for that very reason:  I felt that Bassai Dai had the kind of focus and feeling which could help my Chinte, and that I needed that.

So last night in training I did Empi as my test kata when called upon.  It felt very strange to announce "Empi" instead of "Chinte", and strange to be doing it again after so long.  Not only has it not been my primary kata, I haven't even been doing it as my secondary kata.  It's been years since I seriously trained this kata.  Although I still do it pretty well, I realize that a few fine points have slipped.  As I did the kata thinking of it in terms of testing with it, I made adjustments.  I got some advice.  I also encountered some old bugaboos, aspects of the kata that I always did struggle with, no matter how proficient I eventually became at it.  And I think that perhaps those are exactly the things I need to iron out in my karate as a whole, and that maybe it will be easier for me to do so by working on a kata that I already have such good feeling for.  And I think maybe that was Sensei's whole point.

I'll still be doing Chinte, just working it for now as a second kata, not first kata.  I've got some new things to think about in terms of application which might help, and I've already gotten a couple of things from Empi that I probably need to think about as I do Chinte, because the same principles apply.  And I'll try very hard to correct the flaws in my Empi and to be aware of them in my greater karate.  This will require some adjustments in my thinking and priorities, and I can't promise I won't be a little resentful at times, but this isn't about pride, it's about growth.

Which Test Kata?

I'm facing a dilemma, so I'm going to think out loud about it in this blog.

The situation is simple:  Despite 3 years of doing Chinte as my primary kata, I am still struggling with it.  I can't seem to get a "feel" for it, and it's very inconsistent.  It has been suggested that I switch test katas to one that is stronger and more consistent.

That part is easy.  I can't dispute that Chinte still isn't what it should be.  I will take some of the blame for this, since I haven't put in as much "out of dojo" time as usual on this kata.  However, I have put in enough that these problems should be ironed out by now.  I do not know why I cannot make this kata be consistent and why I can't perform it well and with more feeling, but I can't seem to get mind and body wrapped around it.  I do it well about one time in ten, no matter what I try.  It's frustrating, to say the least.

The hard part is, switching katas.  It has been suggested that I go back to Empi, because it's much stronger and much more consistent.  While I won't dispute that my Empi is better, I'm not certain I feel that is the answer to the current problem.  Just for starters, I'm not sure it's in my best interest on any level to switch to a lower level kata; it seems a bit like I'm "giving up", and also it means I don't grow and challenge myself.  I don't really fancy going into a Sandan retest using an intermediate level kata after struggling with a higher class kata; I'm not convinced that will look very good.  If they saw me do Chinte last time, and then see me go back to my Nidan kata, I have a strong suspicion I will not pass -- and as much fun as that was last time, I really don't want another retest!

Ideally, I find a way to conquer whatever block I have with Chinte, get through my retest successfully, and then embrace some new kata.  However, that could take years!  It's a deceptively difficult kata and apparently I've got a big block preventing me from taking it any farther than I already have.  The people who have been working with me have done everything in their power to help me past it, and they're out of ideas for now.  Unless I find a lot more time for training, and get some additional input from someone who hasn't already given me their all, I don't see it happening.

Second option, I could go back to Empi, my Nidan kata.  My Empi today is better than it used to be, I'm almost certain.  It shows the effects of 3 more years of training, even though that time was not spent on that kata.  It would certainly show karate growth on a certain level.  It's a solid kata, too.  I can't help remembering, though, that when I moved on to Chinte, several people told me that they'd never thought Empi was a particularly good kata for me.  And you just never see people of higher ranks doing it as their primary kata.  In fact, I know of one woman who was told to change katas after making Nidan because Empi was too low level for her now.

Third option, go back to Bassai Dai, my Shodan kata.  Although technically it too is an intermediate kata, it is done through much higher ranks than Empi.  I was delighted to turn my back on Bassai Dai after making Shodan, but have been told it's a strong kata for me.  And, it would help me work on the very things that are weak in my Chinte, and perhaps help me get past that block.

Fourth option, something new altogether.  If so, what kata do I select?  Because of the looming retest, it would have to be one that I already have a solid grasp on and can perform relatively well, which just needs "polishing", and higher level if possible.  Jion is one possibility, it's performed at very high ranks, and although it was once a very weak kata for me, it's come a very long way and I think I do a pretty respectable rendition of it (but at this point I can't trust my judgement on that).

I don't know what to do and I'm a bit frustrated.  We have a tournament this weekend, for which I will gladly do Empi should I make it to final rounds.  However, down the line is that Sandan retest.  Whatever kata I plan to do for that is what I need to be busting ass on right now.  I've been devoting that energy (obviously fruitlessly) to Chinte.  If I need to change that, I need to know immediately, if not sooner.  And I can't figure out which direction is the best one to go.

Why People Leave Karate

Through the years I've seen people come and go in karate, for a variety of reasons.  Some of them I expected, some surprised me, some stunned me.  Trying to guess at someone else's situation and mindset is of course impossible, but it seems to me that most of them boil down to one of a few simple reasons:

1)  Burnout.  This one is inevitable in anyone who practices and trains seriously.  The body, the mind, the emotions sometimes need a rest, need to shift perspective.  However, burnout does not necessarily lead to leaving karate for good, nor does it have to.  In my experience, that comes when people have invested too much, for the wrong reasons, and cannot go back.  One man I know had his heart set on going to Worlds, and he was good, very good -- it was a strong possibility.  He concentrated everything he had on that one goal, and when it didn't happen for him that year, he crashed.  Hard.  It was years before he entered a dojo again, but he finally did return -- with the condition that he will never compete again.  He doesn't want to go through that again, and possibly lose his love for karate forever.  It's wonderful to have him back, and wonderful to see that he has found a way to a more healthy and permanent path in karate.

2)  Other commitments.  Again, these are inevitable in people's busy lives.  Very few of us have so little on our plates that we never miss a training.  Some commitments can and should come first, for instance, your family.  One woman I know is the parent of two toddlers.  Right now, she cannot arrange her schedule so that she has reliable child care during training hours, and has resigned herself to time away from the dojo.  She will come back when she can, and we can't wait to have her back.  Some people, however, never return; as they pursue their other commitments, other pastimes take over as well.  I think if people are truly martial artists, they never give up their karate completely though, and if they don't come back after taking a break, then that break was just an excuse to move on.

3)  Illness or injury.  Again inevitable.  Sometimes we can work around illness or injuries, sometimes time is all it takes.  Sometimes, sadly, they mean that regular dojo training is impossible.  An older woman who trained when I first started, and got her Nidan at the age of 74, finally gave up because her hearing and eyesight got so bad that she simply could not follow the instructor anymore.  We did not care, sensei did not care, but she felt bad and did not wish to disrupt class.  She still shows up at tournaments sometimes though to cheer us on, and it's always a joy to see her.

4)  Personal or political reasons.  Usually this boils down to "personality conflicts", and it's a crying shame.  I'd love to say that martial arts is immune to political divisions, but that is not true.  Dojos are to some extent businesses, and organizations have corporate structures and hierarchies.  I'd love to believe that all martial artists were above petty infighting or selfishness, but as I've commented earlier in this blog, that's a pretty unfair thing to expect -- that practicing martial arts make you less than human, and immune to human weaknesses!  However, some very fine martial artists have left the dojo, probably never to return to regular trainings, due to exhaustion and frustration from these types of conflicts.  Their loss is inestimable, in terms of skill, experience, and instruction.  These are the ones that I mourn, and I can think of two off the top of my head, with no reflection, that are a huge loss, in my personal opinion.

There's no real "point" to this post, it's merely observation.  We were discussing someone who is gone now, and what a loss we feel it is.  Not everyone would agree with us, but the person in question was a gifted martial artist (if a somewhat challenging human being), and we learned so much from them... we feel sorry for those to come who will never get that opportunity.

Upon reflection, I feel that anyone leaving is a loss, both to themselves, and to the dojo and the greater martial arts community (and yes, this includes the people that I don't agree with, and the ones I hated to train with!!).  Why?  Because each person brings something unique to the experience, and something gets added to the whole.  You can always learn something, even if it's a negative experience for you -- perhaps even especially if that is the case.