Demonstrations

Along with six members of Haxby Karate club, I have recently performed two demonstrations in primary schools. Doing demonstrations, and choreographing the moves, has given me an interesting insight into karate and it's promotion. I was reading recently how Master Funakoshi popularised karate in Japan. The main way he did this was through the medium of demonstrations. Unlike many other martial arts, karate demos are spectacular, dramatic and exciting. I believe this is why shotokan karate is so popular today around the world. However, a demonstration is never real karate, it is always adapted in order to entertain.

For my demonstrations, and those performed by the other club members of Haxby Karate, the opponent is entirely cooperative in everything you do. He adjusts his stances, shifts his weight, alters his attack and allows himself to be hit when necessery. Watch the ashi barai in sensei Kanazawa's video at 1:33 and notice how the uke is already falling as Sensei sweeps his foot. (Incidentally, I've chosen that video because I think it is the most remarkable demo video I've ever seen and my humble reproduction of it recently is the best I could do with my limited talent). I do believe, however, that even if it isn't real karate, it plays an important role in the development of the art. You can show, in demonstration, the budo of shotokan in a way that competition does not. That is why it is superior as a form of promotion and why Master Funakoshi used it as opposed to competition, in my opinion, to spread Shotokan Karate across Japan.

Blood, Sweat and pain

Training with Sensei Kagawa is one of the highlights of my year. This year, the course was in the beautiful city of Dublin, the location of the JKS GB & Ireland hombu dojo under Sensei Scott Langley (5th Dan IJKA).




The course was well attended over the weekend although not many trained every session. I must confess that I found the training, physically, very difficult. I consider myself to be in reasonable shape but I'm reconsidering this after this weekend. Sensei Kagawa was, as ever, precise in his training and instructing. He demands the highest standard in technical skill and no detail is too fine in this regard. Everything from heel point turn when in kokutsu dachi moving to zenkutsu dachi and hikite and hikiash principles for punching and kicking. The information he communicated over the weekend was vast and it will take me time to organise it in my mind and work on it in training. The assistant instructors were also excellent. Sensei Alan Campbell and Sensei Scott langley were keen to talk about the beginning of the technique. Most students focus on the end product, the block or the kick, and forget about what comes before. 'The difference,' explained Sensei Scott 'between a white belt who's been training for four months and a fifth dan who has been training for twenty five years is not in the execution of the punch but in the preparation.'


The senior instructor for Ireland, whose name escapes me now, concentrated on kumite and looking at the 'forgotten step'. Everyone considers kumite to follow the familiar pattern of:

Gohon kumite - Ippon Kumite - Jiyuu Ippon kumite - jiyuu Kumite.

What about the bit between Ippon Kumite and Jiyuu Ippon kumite. The instructor gave the name but I cannot remember the terminology. However, I certainly remember the application. This form of kumite requires the attacker to blog the counter and then attack with his own technique. This requires exceptional speed and distance control and is, in my opinion, better than jiyuu kumite at speeding up reaction speeds.

The thing that strikes me most about training with Sensei Kagawa is the aura, gravitas, or whatever else you would call it, that emanates and pulsates around such a physically small individual. I suppose that this charisma is why he is considered, by some, to be the best in the world right now. What gives him this charm is his exceptional skill and ability. It was expensive, incredibly difficult and physically challenging. I can't wait for next year!

greetings from dublin

i've just finished my first training session with sensei Kagawa. It was such a demanding session. We began by running around the hall for about 15mins, doing around 300 sit-ups (no really, 300 press-ups, endless amounts of squats and some more running around. I'm going to do a full report when i get back, with pictures, but the key points about todays session were clay pigeons and apples.

Armchair experts

This video by Andre is exceptionally good. Andre had the fantastic opportunity of spending a lot of personal time with Sensei Asai and so he understands, maybe better than anyone, the principles behind asai-ryu karate.

The posts about the video on youtube are so typical of the kind of comments you read on most martial art videos. They are usually putting down an individual or an art simply because it's not their art. Why have this attitude in the first place. I respect all martial arts and if i think an individual practitioner of that art isn't very good, I am not going to comment on it. The main reason is that I don't understand that art so how do I know if it's good or not. Likewise, only students in my club, or students in a class if I'm being asked to teach, will receive my comments on their abilities and skill and even this will be constructive. As for comments regarding what will and will not work on the streets, all martial arts will work because they teach techniques that are designed to hurt the other person. The only issue, in terms of how effective they are, is how good is the individual practitioner?

Unsu

This is such a difficult kata but these guys are amazing. Sensei Kagawa's training really seems to work. Off to dublin to train with Kagawa Sensei so watching some of these videos has got me really excited.