Daidokan Karate Clubs 大道館

The Big Five O Karate Bash

2012-01-13T07:35:00.000+13:00

In the early planning stages for this check out our Facebook Event for details as they emerge. Will be mid to late May.
https://www.facebook.com/events/323892050956733/

Karate Doesn't Work Part 1

2011-10-11T07:58:00.004+13:00

How many times have I read this of late?
All over the internet the reality gurus are on the attack
''karate doesn't work in fact it is dangerous to think it does.''
''All karate teachers are fakes''
''If you think you are learning to defend yourself you are kidding yourself.''
These guys usually back up their claims by showing clips of MMA or some other reality based guru doing his thing on pads. They also show clips of competition sparring which to be fair is pretty lame these days.

Right first up karate, MMA, self-protectionism, reality base pad work if in the hands of somebody who trains once per week who doesn't try when they are in class and doesn't practise outside, just will not work. MMA at top level is hard out and I take my hat off to these (top level) exponents however if you are looking for a self-defence 'magic bullet' it will not be found there or anywhere else for that matter.

Karate is more than fighting. I can teach you all the techniques you will ever need to know about self defence (fighting) in half an hour. All you need is 5 simple effective techniques. Your choice. To be able to make them work is your job. Practise, hit things and condition your body (read strengthen) to be able to use these 5 techniques. Train these and nothing else. Boring eh.

3 Rules for Self Protection
In order to be able to protect yourself ;
1. Avoid trouble and places where trouble lurks.
2. Train hard and smart just incase.
3. Rule 1. applies always.

There is more to karate than fighting. Go look.

Daidokan Karate is for Self-defence not Fighting!!

2011-08-15T23:01:00.001+12:00

One of the aims of Daidokan Karate is self-defence not winning fights or competition points. The ultimate aim is to avoid the fight altogether but if it all goes to custard the strategy is to fight to escape rather than to win the fight. To this end I have explored various drills and routines but they inevitably involved some form of too-ing and fro-ing moving back or combinations designed for a fight. General concenus among doormen and 'real' fighters is that action beats reaction every time and that we should all be pre-pared to pre-empt an attack. This I agree with but there are lots of mental barriers that stop law abiding people from doing so. Geoff Thompson and Peter Consterdine advocate the use of a fence (hands used as an inoffensive barrier between you and what may be some innocent party who really only wants directions, time etc.

The kamae (posture) we adopt is a fudo-sanchin type stance as it can be quickly adapted from a 'social' stance. Hands are out in front again this posture can be quicky transfered from the fence position. Front hand is in front with the back hand closed fist covering the solar plexus. From a front view the attacker has only low or high target options. With your conditioning this should render chudan attacks obsolete. Attacker attacks to the head defender moves in with a block (read the Motobu link http://seinenkai.com/articles/swift/swift-tidbits3.html) or page 31 of Pat McArthy's book. The block should be an attack, the blocking hand should instantly become the countering hand. If you block then counter it should be simualtanious. The non-blocking hand smothers the other attacking hand. This is the important bit move in on the attack, hurt the attacking limb, smother the attack and hit your opponant with whatever is nearest. This is the initial contact or starting point, hopefully it will finish it but if not unleash your arsenel on him/her.

We start with pre-determined (single) attacks all jodan (still working on gedan kicks will probably take the form of a leg check), blocking and countering using the principles mentioned i.e. block and counter with the same hand where possible. It is important for the attacker to attack, defender should be unnerved (feel the fear) i.e if you don't block you will get hit. We work this as a 4 or 6 step drill however it is not one continuous fight but rather 4 or 6 individual fights. The defender can if he/she likes invite the attack by exposing an opening. Attacker should hone his/her prre-emption skills by attacking at the best opportunity this ensures that the defender has to be switched on. After a while we move onto continuus attacks or at least trying to smother them. As we get more competant at this we will free it up a bit but in line with the self-defence aim one will be the attacker, attacking with whatever and one the defender.

We are experimenting with pulling out kata moves and using the same principles as above using them as our defence. For safety reasons we will only indicate some attacks but will perform the same kata immediately after the sparring to allow full expression. Another twist is to look for a take-down or lock immediately after your counter.

This type of sparring is not designed for winning competitions as I have taken away chudan blocks, chudan attacks are covered by kamae (posture) and conditioning. Although (for the time being) I have removed reverse gear from blocking angling and evasion are allowed. The aim of this sparring is for self-defence i.e. fight to escape not hurt or win, although it is well recognised that it may be necessary to hurt. We have found that this type of sparring generates a few bruises and can test the nerves. Have fun!!

Homework

2011-07-24T14:00:00.001+12:00

Right guys read this then tell me what the 10 elements of kata are and how can we apply them to our training. Kata Past, Present & Future

Karate Friendship Weekend (NZ) #2

2011-06-04T19:31:00.001+12:00

Day 1

Pressure point work Robin Warburton

Must admit I was a wee bit nervous going into this one, all th PP work that I have done before were all a bit Jedi/Star warsy. I need not have worried Robin has his head screwed on and within a few sentences alleyed the fears of us old warriors who have been there before.

It has always been my opinion that PP are fine as long as you have time to find them, unlikely in a self-defence situation. However as soon as Robin showed us his way we were all finding them pretty quickly. Fairly soon we would hear "ouch that hurt do it again". All the time smiling always smiling. I always end up with the big ugly one (or is it the other way about:-) in this case it was Geoff Blokland a Gojuryu 3rd Dan. I will say it was pretty damn hard finding his little finger to twist. Aftrer two or three failed atempts he showed me that it wasn't there:-)

Time just flew passed and it was time for lunch. Hmm wraps too many wraps.

Post Stun takedowns Geoff Blokland

Geoff's turn to put us through the mill with some take downs. Working round the body taking in the diferent angles of attack all ending up in the take-down = grass stains. Robin drew the short straw and ended up with me this time. Two of us must be brothers or something because we started working the takedowns into a drill to take home with us. Afternoon tea time goodness they fed us well.

Groundwork Robin Warburton

Being the host has it's disadvantages one of them being that you are expected to be uke first up. Not quite sure what he done but ouch. Wasn't much better when I got partnered up with Glen (remember what I said about the big ugly one) spent the next hour or so being smother with bits of me twisted in awkward angles. Was hoping Steve and Ian remembered more of this.

Nijushiho and kata application Principles Andrew Paxton

My turn. I decided tht we all need a good workout after several helpings of roast chicken and veggies followed up by greedy amounts of apple crumble ice cream and custard.

I will confess to crammng about three months worth of classes into two hours.

Started of with a footwork drill that I learned years ago from Kase Sensei (I think), John Holdsworth uses it as does Patrick McArthy as did Harry. This is what we have been working at the club for the last few weeks. Key for those that can remember it is to change the starting position of each technique and you will change its context. Confused? Come back next year and I will spend the whole 2 hours practising and breaking it down and show you how to shoehorn it into your sparring/drills. You can take the same principles into kata analysis. Even more confused......

I chose Nijushiho because a great deal of you were Gojuryu with your own/associations ways of performing kata. Nijushiho is a very close cousin to Gojuryu.

I introduced (probably reminded some of you) of the four principles of float, sink, swallow and spit used by Southern White Crane Styles of kung Fu. These principles are helpful in trying to decypher what the kata technique is trying to do. Karate by Jesse has written about this far better than this wee Scotsman can http://www.karatebyjesse.com/?p=9305 . All I will say is look for it in your kata, sparring, drills basics etc. The stances in the kata give you some clues.

Working through the kata I atempted to give some examples of these principles i.e. the why to do's rater than the what to do's. With bed time rapidly approaching and an awareness I was wittering on I slipped in one or two other principles that I use for kata bunkai gyroscopic rotation & shearing. Remember?

Probably enough in that two hours to see half dozen more in depth sessions, but as I said it was just an overview of what I'm trying to create at Daidokan.

Look out for #3 which will cover day 2.

Karate Friendship Weekend (NZ) #1

2011-05-29T20:51:00.005+12:00

As you all know this started out as a seminar with Harry Cook. You also know that he let us down at the eleventh hour for reasons that are a lot worse than a cancelled karate course. I was wound up so much that night that I couldn't even hit my trusty makiwara (my usual release). Anger, panic, let down, outrage, saddness and condemnation were all emotions going through my being, not to mention sorrow for his victim as well as his family. His wife and kids are dear to me and still remain good friends. They are victims in this horrible affair as well.

What the hell was I going to do? Richard Dickens said stuff him lets do it anyway, Fleur & Megan nagged me in the background. Robin Warburton and Geoff Blokland kindly offered to help out with instruction. Steve Hyland from the Uk (I've never met him) allowed me to use his 'Karate Friendship' concept, coaching, encouraging and badgering me in the background. So the Karate Friendship (NZ) Weekend was born. With the exception of one or two people everybody was keen to carry on regardless.

I was worried about Teapot Valley Christian Camp not being too happy about having less than their 25 minimum numbers I decided the personal approach was in order. Paul Shutte the camp manager just shrugged it off saying "it will take a couple of years for you to get established". I must admit I was a wee bit worried about the food side but as all will agree we were fed like royals. Beds could have been a bit softer though :-) Everybody thanked me for the effort put in for the camp, all I had to do was book it. Paul and his staff made the rest stress free. Thanks mate.

As for the weekend itself you guys made it the success it was. One thing that struck me when I was uploading the photos onto Facebook was that 99% of them had smiling faces on them. That means a great deal to me.

From a Students perspective....Karate Friendship Seminar - Nelson May 2011 by Fleur Hindt

2011-05-24T20:56:00.004+12:00

A gathering of 19 karateka from 9 different clubs throughout New Zealand came together for one weekend to meet and train together as one. We had a mix of clubs representing Shotokan, Shorin, Kempo, and a weighty Goju influence. The campgrounds were great, the sun shone and the food was brilliant. The girls got luxury inner sprung beds and the boys began their body conditioning early as they climbed aboard the torture racks they called bunks, to ready themselves for the two days of training ahead.

Saturday, Day one - After shaking out the previous nights kinks we headed for the field outside to begin the first of our four 2hr lessons for the day.

Pressure points - How to make a grown man fall to his knees!
There were a number of sessions that incorporated pressure point work. These sessions were effectively teaching us how to quickly immobilise our opponent and take them down. Pressure point work has the ability to stop a person in their tracks and gives you the upper hand to take control quickly with little fuss.

The scene soon consisted of the sounds of sudden painful grunts followed swiftly by large bodies falling southward at awkward angels.

The terms lung 6, heart 2, bladder 5 and colon 10 spring to mind, soon thereafter with an image of Andrew heading quickly to the nearest toilet.

It highlighted why many of the techniques we perform in Kata and kihon direct us to action strikes and blocks to certain targets on the body. The penny drops as I hear my sensei's voice rings in my head...."get in closer, age uke up in close Fleur, above the elbow into the bicep"..... Aaaah - heart 2......interesting. These little bells kept ringing as we looked at Kata's like Pinan/Heian Sandan & Yondan and took out snippets to interpret the pressure point strikes, locks and take downs.

These were extremely informative, painful, yet somehow enjoyable sessions. And we leave with the knowledge that we never need suffer from constipation again.

Big thanks to Robin Warburton.

Take Downs - Goju style with Geoff Blokland
Another fun session working around the body close quarters from varying angles. Geoff was coming from the street brawl scenario, when arms, hands and bodies are flying, things move fast and you find yourself popping up next to your opponent from a variety of angels. This session covered how to action take downs from every angel around the body, whether face to face, at a 45, side by side - either facing the same direction or in opposite directions. Because life isn't nice and simple and in a real life our situation your opponent doesnt always present themselves neatly in front of you for you to conveniently defend with a tidy block and counter. The truth is ugly - so that's what we worked on.

This session tied in nicely with the previous pressure point session, as our new found knowledge enabled us to put a little more bite in some of our strikes and grips.

So as Geoff would say......"We came away with a few more tools in our toolbox!"

And just on that, it is important to note: there was so much info flying around, locks and take downs to master - it is impossible as a novice to take it all on board. But as a novice I appreciate the complexity of the arts and understand that within a lifetime it will never be mastered, so I am happy in the knowledge that if I can pick up just one or two pointers (tools for my toolbox) from the whole weekend then it has been a huge success.

Lunch...yum! And then Geoff and I had a little play with the bo.

Ground Work
At training hour six of day one - half way into our third session after a bit more pressure point work, we headed to the gym for mat work. I vacantly steered as Rob grabbed some poor volunteer to roll around on the floor with. I think I had reached the point of information overload and the idea of rolling around on the floor with someone at this stage was.....well..... a little unappealing. I had never done it before, it looked hard and I was currently..... brain dead.

So I managed to watch for about 10mins before I decided, watching had to be more boring than doing, so down I went....."Yeh!" I can hear you all cheering...."that's the spirit!" Us few girls (3) stuck together, we weren't having any of those big muddy, grass strained gi wearing boys sticking their groins anywhere near our faces.

And then the fun began!

Thrusting, pushing, trapping and rolling, soon followed by screaming and laughing! Time flew and before we knew it, it was time to break for dinner. The purpose of this session this to give us a couple of basics to ready us for the next days session. By the end of the session, I regretted wasting the first 10 minutes and was looking forward to what tomorrow would bring.

Dinner was fab! I was ready for my nanna nap when a call came through the door - "Fleur - we're on!" And session 4 of the day was ready to start.

Nijushiho Bunkai with Andrew Paxton
As there was a large Goju presence Andy wanted to throw something in the mix that he knew even the experienced Goju boys most probably would not have worked on. So in comes a Shotokan Kata to play with, an Asai favourite.

After a good warm up and challenging combination special of Andrews we moved into learning about the first half of this very cool Kata. We worked in partners experimenting with bunkai application as we stepped through the Kata.

By the end of the night I was ready for my cuppa and cake! Did I mention that the food was good!
Then bed, oh those comfy mattresses....they were soooo good......... sorry boys.

Sunday, Day Two - Two more two hour sessions that followed on from the previous day, more pressure point work followed by our second session of groundwork. All I can say is, that beyond the absent minded boob fondling (just as well Megan and I are good friends!) and thigh burn to my left ear, it was a very fun session indeed, filled with grunts, tap outs and lots of laughter.

We finished the day with Glen Morgan back out on the field with a little Goju feel - Gekaisai dai ichi kata while holding our wee or not so wee chi ishi, hey fun! Kata on a hill side, hey fun! Some conditioning moving drills, hey fun! - "Smiling, we're all still smiling" Glen would call.

And finally Richard Dickens tried to install a little hip action into us all to round off this final session.

Another yummy lunch and our last chance to chat and laugh together. I'm always thirsty for information and very interested in other schools lineage and history, so I'm always asking lots of questions. It was great to be around passionate, like minded people where we could compare notes and appreciate style differences and similarities.

A huge thanks goes out to Andrew Paxton for putting it all together. Massive thumbs up to Robin Warburton and Geoff Blokland for pushing me outside my comfort zone and cheers to Glen Morgan and Richard Dickens for keeping us constantly entertained.

And to the rest of ya, well - we'll be chatting on facebook!

Fleur

Daidokan Karate Club Gekisaidai Opening Move

2010-10-31T20:42:00.002+13:00

An application from the opening age uke oitsuki combination in the 2 Gekkisai kata. The age uke is a bit more circular than normal and flows into the arm capture. When you capture the arm think along the lines of holding a bird, too light and it'll escape, too hard and and it'll thrash about.
This is slowed down for safety, in reality the biceps smash (punch) should stun or knock the bugger out. When finishing off avoid leaning over him other wise you may get nailed from the floor. Use your knee or feet on joints, ribs, connective tissue etc. I did punch on the first one to indicate target areas but it's best to use the tools nearest i.e. feet.
Have fun stay safe.

Interval Training Revisited

2010-08-22T17:04:00.001+12:00

I found this awesome post by Randy Simpson on the Karate Resource Forum . He's cleverer than me so I have posted it here. Randy trains with Traditional Karate Research Institute. Visit their blog it is like an encyclopaedia of karate and conditioning.

"The duration between activities will depend on what you hope to accomplish- conditioning the aerobic or anaerobic power systems. The anaerobic systems are dominantly recruited for the first 2ish minutes of activity, after that threshold the aerobic system begins to take over. It takes about 2 minutes to replenish 100% of the ATP supply carried in your muscle tissue, so if your goal is the best possible technique, power output and control, a 2 min. interval is what you want. If you are looking at overall endurance, continuous performance will condition aerobic energy production. Going from one interval activity to another with no breaks will activate the aerobic system, so you will not benefit as much in anaerobic conditioning. All three power systems are heavily intertwined, and a percentage of each one is active even when another is dominant- but if you want to target specific adaptations, pay attention to the time duration and time between intervals.

We often have three in our weekly classes, which makes for a very nice interval system. Two partners work in drill while the third stands on a balance board and keeps time and recovers. At the 2 min mark, one partner steps out, the stand-out steps in, and after a 30 second or so break the drill starts again, and so on. The guy who ends up pulling two rotations in a row gets a chance to recover ATP levels to a little under half of resting. A fact that our current "fitness and diet" markets have obscured for people is that higher intensity activity requires you to have a sufficient supply of carbohydrate-derived fuel on board. Once this fuel supply is burnt out and you switch over to fat-burning as a fuel source, intensity will drop. So if the goal is a training session full of numerous high-intensity bouts of exercise or drills, the trainee must have an adequate supply of carbohydrate in order to maintain that level. Something like Gatorade after an hour of this sort of training is very useful in replenishing energy stores for interval training.

Whatever technical content you're working on can fit into this scheme to increase productivity and skill development while avoiding over-training injuries. For example, doing 100 kicks per leg is incredibly counter-productive. After a couple dozen the nervous system begins to "tone down" the muscles that are supposed to be prime movers, altering joint motion and technique. So blasting through a shitload of things at once is more training, but is not necessarily better or more productive. Taking those 200 kicks and breaking them into chunks of 20 per leg followed by a rest standing on a balance board will allow you to keep performing those kicks at a high level of technical accuracy and adequate energy production. The balance board (or single leg balance, etc.) gives you time to recover ATP and lower your heart rate while also giving the muscles of the torso, hips and legs a chance to work with different stimulus, thereby avoiding the "toning down" effect (aka arthrokinematic inhibition) so that they are fresh for the next batch of kicks using proper technique and muscle recruitment. Intervals provide a great way to exploit these mechanisms to avoid injury/fatigue and increase in skill and recovery rate."

My Slant on Makiwara Training.

2010-07-17T00:45:00.002+12:00

Having trained on the makiwara for the last 9 years or so I am well acquainted with both the benefit an dangers associated with it. The advice from the traditional "gurus" is to hit the thing with anywhere between 200 and 1000 times each day. Oh and your not supposed to do it to condition your hand (big callouses). I have always had a problem with this approach because

with the number of reps being that high you can't help but pace yourself. Less speed = less impact power.
You are developing endurance strength rather than speed strength or balistic power which is what is required for powerful technique.
Hitting every day = nil recovery time = zero progress. This can also lead on to injury through overuse.
Precious time could be put to more productive use.
And yes you will develop Neanderthal like callouses on your knuckles.

With this in mind I changed my routine to 2 or 3 times per week and changing hands every 50 strikes up to a maximum of 200. Even with this I was finding that after about 25 strikes the power starts to wane. Oh but that is when your spirit should kick in say the gurus. Performing 200 full power strikes in sets of 8,7,6,5............................will test your spirit more than 200 one set marathons with the added benefit of improving both your power and technique.

Striking with low reps per set allows me to perform each strike at full power without the associated muscle fatigue that you get after 25 or so in the traditional method. Moreover striking around 200 full power punches will have greater strength advantages over striking 200+ half asses "spirit building" strikes.

When selecting exercise for my 'Power trip' I could have easily stuck with the kettlebells however as mentioned earlier my goal is better karate not better kettlebell. My makiwara is great I built it myself, it's not so stiff as to damage my hand and not too flexible as to provide no resistance. The harder I hit it the more resistance it throws back at me.

When you hit a makiwara it's not just your arm the gets a work out it is your core and legs as well. By tensing everything on(and through) impact you get the 'ripple' effect as described by Rob Beauchamp in the kettlebell Bible.

Powering Up My Karate

2010-07-16T21:15:00.000+12:00

Most of my students will be aware that I have been reading up on power training and that I have become addicted to kettlebells. My reading has been based mainly around Stan Pike & Les Beauchamp's excellent Kettlebell Bible as well as various articles written by Charles Staley which can be found here (note all external links will open in new window).

Both sources agree that higher intensity training methods are of more benefit to our pursuit than traditional endurance training followed by some dojo. Staley takes it one step further with his Escalating Density Training Programme (P.S. ignore the glossy ads read the message). EDT is a time base training system which allows you(me) to work at your own pace and set targets for your own development. It is simple in design and can be shoehorned into various circuits using weights or body weight exercise. Click on the link Charles explains it a lot better than I ever could.

Goal Setting

Since discarding my trusty chainsaw eight weeks ago I have gained 5kg and added 5cm to my waistline. So that's 105kg and 99cm round the belly. Now my Doc says that a 'big boned' chap like me should concentrate more on my waste-line than my weight. A 'healthy' waist is 90% of your hip measurement. So I am currently at 94%. Bugger. However weight control for me has always been a by-product of my other activities and I intend to keep it that way.

As you know goals should be SMART specific, measurable, achievable, recordable and time-scaled. Or something like that:-). When I introduced an EDT style circuit into our dojo one night it became very apparent to me that the goals of the exercise became blurred a wee bit especially amongst the younger ones. i.e. getting the highest number of reps overtook good form. From my point of view if the exercise doesn't make my karate stronger or better it has very little value to me. So what are my goals?

Specific

Develop stronger, faster punches.
Strengthen my legs in preparation for kick development later.
and ok lose the belly

Measurable & Achievable

I am aiming for a 10% improvement in all these areas. Probably well achievable however I may up the anti on this as I get into it.

Recordable

I will update the blog with my results as I go.

Time-scaled

This programme will last for 6 weeks when I will change onto another.

The Programme

Day 1 Makiwara and 16kg kettlebell bent over rowing. I will be doing high intensity low rep sets i.e.

Warm up.
2 minute rounds with 1 minute rest between rounds.
Start with 8 reps makiwara immediately followed by 8 reps of bent over rowing then makiwara then rowing as many sets as you can. Record the number sets you do in each exercise (self explanatory in next blog).
After 2 minutes take 1 minute active rest.
Then 7 reps of each for 2 mins then 1 minute active rest the 6,5,4, 3..................you get the picture.
At the end of the session warm down and stretch.

At this stage I will total the number of reps I have done this is my base-line that I have to equal or better next time round.

Day 2 Legs using 5kg ankle weights and 16kg kettlebell, knees to chest with ankle weights and squats with double-handed grip on kettle bell.

Same rules as day 1, hey that's the beauty of this system you can adapt it to any exercise session.

Day 3 as day 1 unless a 'dojo day' in which case day 3 will happen on day 4. Confused come back and read about my progress all will be revealed.
Recovery I should also mention here that you should also have a complete day of rest. My day is Saturday.

General Guidelines

If you get half way through a set at time up, finish and count it i.e. complete both sides of the body don't get all anal on time keeping. Your body can't read your stopwatch.
Remember to warm up thoroughly beforehand and warm down and stretch at the end.
This happens on top of my normal karate skill practise not instead of.
Remain focussed on the goal and not get hung up on the process. The goal is stronger faster punches not more reps.
Use good form and perform full power punches (see #4)

Come back often and cheer my progress!!!!!!!!!!!!

Daidokan First Grading

2009-06-10T22:02:00.000+12:00

Back row: Nigel Elvy, Kyle Thomas, Paul Henly, Andrew Paxton, Steve Ransby,

Middle: Wendy Reitsma, Liz Clark

Front: Alex Paxton, Luke Platt, Ralph Paxton, Andrew Pedley, Stuart Crossland.

Still Life in the Old Dog

2009-01-20T21:29:00.000+13:00

These are more recent pics 25 years later, on the other side of the world.

Young Andrew

2009-01-18T21:07:00.000+13:00

An early pic of me (on the left) around 1984, 4th kyu at the time outside Focus leasure centre Galashiels with Tommy Docherty. Hmm the leg used to go up there wonder if I can still do it?