Dealing with Day-to-Day Pressures

It's not unusual for karate-ka to experience difficulties, and (surprisingly for some) karate training can sometimes help. For example, students can have relationship difficulties, which can feel as stressful as losing a loved one. A nice aspect of karate training is that once the student steps onto the dojo floor, the student should clear his or her mind of everything outside of karate, including all personal difficulties and troubles, and focus exclusively on training while in the dojo. In my experience, I've found that using this blocking device can give a welcome reprieve from the pressures of day-to-day life, and in the long run, I believe it makes us better to handle life's pressures outside of the dojo. I hope you'll practice this technique regularly as part of your karate training!

Goals for an Orange Belt

I've set the following goals as reasonable for my orange belts (7th kyu) to attain:

1) move fluently through kata saifa, and
2)learn all five of the saifa kihon bunkai.

Higher ranks should help the orange belts reach these goals.

Introductory Syllabus

In the past, many new students have asked for a reference book they could get to help with their Goju introduction, such as a book that discusses Goju techniques. To provide (what I hope to be) helpful information, I've briefly listed our first week introductory training syllabus:

We began with junbiundo (preparatory), the exercises that warm up or loosen up students, and are designed to "prepare" students for certain techniques. We start with the toes and work up our legs toward the heart. Then, we move to the fingers, and work inwards, through our arms and shoulders, again to our heart. We loosened the neck and practiced some strikes involving the wrist. Finally, we worked a few breathing exercises, which have ki (spirit or internal energy training).

Then, we practiced dachi (stances), as follows: sanchin dachi ("three battles/conflicts" stance -- looks like the shape of an hour-glass), shiko dachi (low stance), zenkutsu dachi (front/forward stance), and last, neko ashi dachi (cat foot stance).

After covering these four basic stances, we moved to kihon (basics, or basic techniques), and practiced chudan yoko uke ("side" block -- middle block) from the stance of sanchin dachi. Then, we practiced age uke (rising high block), from the stance shiko dachi.

Next, we practiced kihon ido (basics with movement). While these drills usually include hand techniques, because we're just beginning, we practiced only stepping. The four rules of movement are: hip moves first; head and shoulders remain centered over the hips, feet stay attached to the ground, and tanden (the center of the body) stays down. There's a fifth rule, that I demonstrated but didn't mention, because applies only sometimes: feet move in a semicircle under the body.

Last, we concluded with some of the movements of a kata (form or pattern), called Sanchin. While I could write for days about this aspect of training, for now I'll provide only the saying, "Kata holds the essence of karate, and Sanchin kata contains the essence of Goju Ryu."

Please understand that the Japanese words above are written in romanji, which is not Japanese, but a Western system for writing the Japanese language.

Frustration as a Beginning Student

Soon after beginning to study Goju Ryu karate, it's typical for new students to become frustrated trying to learn a new technique. Maybe it's a hand movement they can't get down pat, or a particular stance causes difficulty. Or, maybe they can do the stance and the hand technique, but when they combine them, everything falls apart. And, to make matters worse, often another brand new student appears to have no difficulty whatsoever with the same technique.

This experience is normal -- absolutely everyone goes through it. Perhaps it occurs on the first day, or after a week or so. Once in awhile, it may take several weeks for a seemingly gifted new student to have difficulty learning a new technique. No matter, it happens to all new students, and frequently, too. The question becomes, how do new students deal with this feeling?

In response to this frustration, many new students leave the dojo. It's too difficult; it's not for me; it doesn't make sense; I don't like it. No matter the rationalization, the result is the same -- obstacle resolved by quitting. but, I don't view this as a beneficial resolution.

When faced with frustration learning a technique, students should persist. Try breaking the technique down into small parts. Spend a little extra time before or after class working on it. Ask a more experienced student for help. Research the technique, by watching others or by searching the Internet.

There is no time limit on how long it should take a student to learn any technique. There is, however, an absolute necessity to continue training -- otherwise, you learn nothing. And, there's no benefit to that!