How to tie a Tang Soo Do belt

Having a beard is not obligatory for practicing Tang Soo Do, wearing a belt is.

Saya construction

The saya is the scabbard of a sword in Japanese. The saya has a beautiful finish to it and is very often so highly lacquered that one might think it was plastic! It is, in fact, traditionally made from magnolia (ho) which is easy to work, has very little sap and is said to have oils wihtin it to help preserve the blade (An introduction to japanese Swords, I. Bottomley). 

I found a very interesting website outlining the main processes of making a saya:

• Kidori & Nakadoshi: Cutting & Splitting the Blank
• Kezuri-awase: Planing the Inner Surface
• Kaki-ire: Chiseling the Space for the Blade
• Norizuke: Gluing the Two Halves Together
• Arakezuri & Nakakezuri: Rough & Fine Planing the Outside
• Mekugi-ana-age: Drilling the Rivet Hole
• Shiagekezuri & Shiagemigaki: Finish Planing & Finish Polishing

Usually the hilt (tsuka) is also made from magnolia wood. I believe the ho wood is cut from the Japanese magnolia or Magnolia hypoleuca (possibly Magnolia liliiflora).

The saya is an important part of the sword in iai. Correct usage of the saya helps the drawing of the sword rendering the iai-to a two part weapon: sword and saya.

Train, train go away

I missed Shorinji Kempo training on Monday due to a slight illness and as I was thinking through a few techniques today I found they weren't as fluent as I'd have liked. It's amazing what effect a week or so away from training can have. 

Bored

When I trained in Tang Soo Do I really didn't want to be there. As I warmed up my calves felt like lead: really heavy and stiff. I jogged round the dojang cursing myself for not skipping it and putting my weary calves up on the sofa and sipping some whisky. But I was there. So I got on with it. It's important not to let that feeling linger otherwise you might as well leave the training hall. I have to admit it kept creeping in but part of training for me is to try and stay on task, stay focused: put in as much as you can to get good returns on your investment of time and energy.

Fatigue

On top of it all Alex decided to do some circuit training as a warm up! It's good sometimes to push your body and condition it up. You may well one day be glad of the extra work you put in when you really need to dig into the reserves you've built up over time. It's also good to push yourselves to the limit and then see how your techniques work. Can you cope? How does the technique cope? It was a good tonic too. I wouldn't recommend it every week though!

Wobbly hands and the dan jun

Strictly speaking hands that flapped back instead of pulling straight back. After thrusting out a front punch (reverse) it's easy for the arm to fold back in on itself as it returns. And this is the problem: I was letting the arm return and not actively engaging with the return mechanism. Consequently...good choong dan kong kyuck, poor return with the arm *bending* (gasp) at the elbow. Too much shoulder movement, not enough pulling it back with the dan jun (tanden). Out with the dan jun, back with the dan jun *in the same line on which it went out!* 

Don't just crank it on!

When someone actively resists your attempt to apply a joint-lock, most people fall into the trap of applying more and more force.  Besides being dangerous -- if it eventually works you may well hyperextend the joint -- this approach contradicts the "minimum effort" part of this month's theme.  Pretty soon you find yourself exerting maximum effort to minimum effect.

Three better alternatives:

1. Distract: A light strike or -- even the threat of a strike -- to a vulnerable will take your partner's focus away from their resistance for a moment, and that should be long enough to apply the lock.  [Other distractions: pinches, kiais, etc. can also do the same job.]
2. Change the focus of the lock: Most locks either use or have the potential for a two-way action.  Usually the resistance will arise at the point where you are applying most of the force.  Switch your emphasis to another point of contact (and maybe back again).
3. Flow into a different technique: Make use of the resistive force supplied by your partner to power the transition.  Now the resistance is working for you.

All of these options emphasize skill, sensitivity and knowledge over brute strength.

As the Borg of Star Trek say: "Strength is irrelevant. Resistance is futile.  We wish to improve ourselves."  

And Bjorn Borg (former tennis great): "You have to find it. No one else can find it for you".

Ō-Yoroi 大鎧

O-Yoroi is a Japanese medieval armour worn between the 10th and 14th Century. Of mostly lamellar construction it covered the trunk of the body and the right flanks (the covering of the right flank was called the waidate): this was to aid the mounted warrior who largely fought on horse back with the bow.  Using a bow meant that carrying a shield was not practicable so shoulder guards called sode were developed to offer protection but maintain freedom of arm movement.

Armour changed in the 14th Century when the samurai fought more commonly on foot and the O-Yoroi gave way to other constructions of armour such as the do maru and the haramaki.

Interesting Armour article here.

Chess?!

What's the board-game of choice for the dedicated martial artist? Chess!*


Chess is  a two-player simulation of a war.  Players start with equal forces and take turns, with first-mover advantage going to white.  Unlike competitive sports in which physical skill can help determine the success of a maneuver, chess is pure tactics and strategy.  Unlike most card games, there is no hidden information.

Like combat one must try to inflict damage on the opponent, by "taking" pieces while defending your own, and -- more subtly -- work on position, lay and spot traps,  and fight for eventual victory.

* * *

As a child I quite liked chess, but beyond learning the basics I was never really taught, and every time I  tried to read a chess book I fell asleep.

More recently, I watched this amazing interview with Josh Waitzkin, chess prodigy turned t'ai chi ch'uan champ now turning into a competitive BJJ-er (he's clearly a very competitive kinda guy!).  It got me thinking: "I wouldn't mind having another go at chess".  So I had a game with an old friend and tried to apply some of my martial arts approach to my play: Even though I lost it was a lot of fun.

In the interview Waitzkin says that chess, t'ai chi and Brazilian jiu-jitsu are all the same to him (at a deeper level).  Waitzkin has a new book out -- The Art of Learning -- in which he writes about these parallels, but I am having fun exploring them for myself.

Recently I bought Waitzkin's entertaining and educational book, Attacking Chess, and have been working through the problems.  His book has the virtue of interleaving his experiences in chess with lessons in the game, with almost all of the problems taken from matches that he played.  Repeatedly, a concept is explained and then you are given a problem and challenged: What's the best move from here?  The context usually gives a hint, and explicit additional hints may follow.  It's a gripping format, but you have to be careful to cover the solutions (which immediately follow the problems) with a bookmark so as not to inadvertently cheat.  

I thoroughly recommend Attacking Chess if  you know the rules of chess and would like to get a bit more deeply into it.  Waitzkin's relentlessly aggressive approach is also refreshing, especially if you tend towards a more conservative mindset in chess (or martial arts).

*Or possibly Go, but I haven' t  gone there yet.

Theme of the month May 2009: Minimum effort, maximum effect

The founder of Judo, Jigoro Kano, used -- in part -- the criterion of "minimum effort, maximum efficiency" to select techniques from the older jiu-jitsu schools to include in his new syllabus, and labeled this criterion as one of the two key principles of Judo, along with the goal of practicing for "mutual welfare and benefit".

This month I will be exploring ways to reduce effort and simultaneously increase effect, together yielding higher efficiency (since efficiency = effect / effort).

The first point when learning a technique is that when it isn't working, don't just apply more force.  This is just adding extra effort (which we should be minimizing!).  Instead, assume that something is amiss and vary it until it starts to work.

Conversely, when a technique is working reasonably well, can you reduce the amount of applied effort and achieve the same effect?