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Karate kata training at the Arizona School of Traditional Karate in Mesa and Gilbert Arizona. Kata (forms) when
practiced correctly become a living encyclopedia of self-defense applications, meditation and unmatched physical fitness.
Here, students and black belts train together in naifanchi shoran kata in 2014. |
Hard to believe that 2014 is gone. Let's remember 2014 and then look forward to another year at the
Arizona Hombu located in the Phoenix valley along Baseline Road at the border of
Chandler,
Gilbert and
Mesa, Arizona.
2014 began at a snails pace following the holidays. When I ran the
dojo at the
University of Wyoming from 1977 to 2007, this was typical. There was a large influx of students beginning in the Fall semester that would decline around
Thanksgiving. Students would sporadically wander into the university
dojo following the New Year and then we would see another decline at
Spring Break followed by a surge followed with a decline at summer semester.
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Training at the Arizona Hombu, Mesa, Arizona |
At the beginning of 2007, I decided to relocate our
Hombu to Arizona. Over the past decades, I taught martial arts at four different universities, and all followed the same student population declines and surges - but by opening a private
dojo, I thought these fluctuations would pass - not so - it appears the entire world follows this schedule. And as far as the students who are consistent in their training and appearance at the
dojo, they are the few who move on to the level of
yudansha.
In 2014, we had our surges and declines, but something else happened. We lost some to the poor economy. As far as I can tell, government continues to lie about how bad our economy really is. This is one of the primary reasons why we never see
politicians in traditional martial arts - its because they cannot differentiate what is right from wrong and
traditional martial arts are somewhat of an enigma to them because a person must be honest.
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Training in kata, Sensei Harden practices oi-zuki |
Overall, we have a high level of educated people training in martial arts at our
dojo primarily because of our past association with four universities.
In 2014, we had students move out of state to find work: one long-time student finally gave up and moved near his family in Florida. We also had two long-time students (engineers) transferred out-of-state by their companies because downsizing. Only a few years ago, we lost another engineer for the same reason. I have not seen any improvement in the economy since 2008 in my
martial arts,
geology or
writing professions, and I wonder how government can get away with such a poor record.mAnyway, let's look at 2014, now that it has passed.
Tuesday nights we trained in
kihon and
kata. During the year, we focused on the basic
kata. Periodically, we split the class into groups while I taught more advanced students and other instructors -
Dai-Shihan Adam,
Sensei Borea,
Sensei Harden and
Sensei Scofield taught other groups of different levels. In the second, or more advanced class on Tuesday nights, we focused on
advanced kata including
Naihanchi Shodan, Rohai, Passai Dai, Unsu and
Passai Sho.
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Defending against an attacker with rifle. |
Throughout 2014,
Wednesday nights included advanced training in self-defense as well as
shitai kori for a few high-ranking members of the
dojo.
Shitai kori is body hardening, and the most advanced form of this part of the art was created by
Dai-Soke Sacharnoski of
Juko Kai International in the 20th century. Wednesday evenings we work on defense against single attackers, multiple attackers, wrestlers, street fighters and
karate and
jujutsu practitioners. We include against armed assailants with knifes, guns, clubs, rifles, swords, hammers, etc. Much of the self-defense is part of the
bunkai from
kata and we emphasize the concept of
hitotsuki or basically one-punch knockouts. This is one of the major differences between
traditional karate and sport
karate. Traditional
karate teaches
karate is a weapon and one must learn to finish an attacker with power and focus with just one or two strikes. In sport
karate, focus is minor and students are taught point fighting for trophies. So we teach all of our students including various
women's groups and seniors, to use power. If a person cannot finish an opponent in one or two strikes, there is something wrong with their technique.
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Defending against an attacker with gun |
Every so often, we'll add a new training exercise such as training in the park to give them the feel for defending on various surfaces. In the past, we've even turned out the lights in the dojo and strategically placed black belt muggers in the dojo allowing students to walk through one at a time.
On Wednesdays, we also teach use of belts, towels, ropes, coins, car keys etc, for
self-defense. We'll even add in a few scenarios on how to defend in close quarters - such as on an airplane - we find this to be important as we have a group of students who are engineers and several who are pilots.
Thursday evenings, we focus on
Shorin-Ryu kobudo, modern
kobudo and
samurai arts. These are all martial arts weapons including a variety of tools found around the house and garden. During 2014, our students trained in
nunchaku and we focused on this weapon for much of the year learning to use
nunchaku in basics, self-defense applications and also as
kata. We learned six
nunchaku kata over the year and also how to apply all moves in these
kata as self-defense. After spending much of the year on
Nunchaku, our class began training with
nitanbo and now they are focusing on
kama. Kama is a common garden tool used by both Okinawan and American farmers - it is sickle. In 2014, we training in self-defense application against an attacker with a sword, club, knife and also learned
Gama shodan kata. In 2015, we continue to train with
kama and will soon start learning
gama nidan and then
gama sandan kata.
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using nunchaku to defend against knife attack |
In the samurai arts class, we trained with
hanbo and
naginata much of the year and we then started with
sojutsu. Our students learned to
block, strike and throw opponents with the
hanbo. We learned the long
yari kata and then began training with
bunkai. Later this year, our samurai arts class will start to focus on
jujutsu and then
katana.
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Defending attack using nunchuks |
During 2014, we also had the
Arizona-Utah Shorin-Ryu karate and kobudo clinic as well as the
Utah Gassuku. We plan to have the same two annual clinics in 2015 as well as attend the Juko Kai clinic in Texas. We are also expecting visits from some of our shihan and sensei from Colorado, Massachusetts, Utah and Wyoming in 2015. I should also point out that in 2014, my fondness of
rocks led me to publish
another book.
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Shitai kori (body hardening). This aspect
of Shorin-Ryu karate is only taught to
our most advanced students. The
basics of the art are taught at the Arizona
Hombu and more advanced applications are
taught to a few students who are invited to
attend the annual Juko Kai International
clinic in New Braunfels, Texas. Here Chase
Cassidy, 1st degree black belt from Gillette,
Wyoming learns to accept strikes to vital
parts of the body.
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Arizona-Utah clinic at the Arizona Hombu in Gilbert - Mesa, Arizona
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Self-Defense class at the Arizona Hombu |
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Gama (kama) training during kobudo class at the Arizona School of Traditional Karate.
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Sojutsu samurai martial arts training with yari (okinawan spear) |