A parent, whose child has been training with us for a couple of years, sent me this essay written by her son as part of his middle school application process.

It floored me that I had so much in common with a 10 year old's training experience. I too have changed a lot and  have had many wonderful teachers to whom I owe a great deal for their patience, perseverance, wisdom, and humour. Ironically,  the people that I learn the most from these days are my students. Thanks to all the kids at World Kanreikai Karate NYC dojo!

Sometimes when I get to roll with Professor, the experience is nothing short of a mind fuck.  He does what he does, slowly, methodically, relaxed, laughing.  But the positions are exotic to my white belt student mind.  Position is a terribly inadequate word, implying that what he does is understandable in a quantifiable, component set of static placements.  No, the movements are in a realm of movement I don't think in yet.  When he rolls like this I am a grain of sand with an ocean floating around me.  When he moves on to another student I sit there on the mat, perfectly uninjured, but my mind has been blown.  I am waking up from a dream world: I was there, participating, but deep down completely helpless.  What the heck just happened to me?

On November 8^th, 2008, World Kanreikai Karate held its second Open Full Contact Tournament in Danbury Connecticut.  The event, hosted by Kanreikai founder Hanshi Manny Matias, was a well attended  evening of much excitement.

What exercises can I do to strengthen the joints, particularly the knee joints?

Full range of motion is ideal for keeping the joint healthy. The knee joint is best described as a  hinge joint, not a ball and socket joint. It bends and straightens. -with a slight rotational torque. I see many people warming up by circling the knees, a movement that is  made possible by the ankle/foot complex and does little for the knee joint. It would be better to flex and the knee and extend the knee - being careful not to hyper-extend -  slowly increasing weight and speed commensurate with one's fitness level and the overall requirements of one's practice or sport. 

Fight Quest on the Discovery Channel at 10PM Friday, January 11th featuring the Kyokushin Dojo in Tokyo, Japan. Should be interesting and will hopefully help raise awareness for all full contact style karate like World Kanreikai Karate which, is a descendant of Kyokushin and World Oyama Karate).

There is much confusion out in the world surrounding the issue of flexibility. Contrary to popular understanding, stretching alone does not create flexibility, nor is hyper-flexibility a desirable state, no matter how good it may look to those of us made of less rubbery stuff. Leg stretching exercises should be performed with proper support and understanding of the different roles of muscle, ligament, fascia, and bone tissues, and an awareness of one’s own body type, to avoid weakening knee and hip joints through imbalanced or over-stretching. Flexibility in kicks is a combination of articulating both halves of the pelvis (yes, it comes apart), strength and activation in the supporting leg, and proper sequencing i.e. the supporting foot and leg initiate the sequence and the knee, shin, or foot of the kicking leg finish the action.  For those of us not-so-flexible types, we can rejoice in our stability, fight close and low, learn to cheat the angles, and when confronted with the flexible opponent -  keep our hands up!

Sensei Michelle 

Soshu Shigeru Oyama said to me after my first full contact competition, “beginner fights like baby; all grabbing. He can’t help it.” How right he was. 

A baby's first movements are primitive reflexes that can also be recognized as foundational movements that support good fighting postures and skills. Some of these reflexes and their karate counterparts are:

I began my martial arts training when I was 18 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan at a Tae  Kwon Do Dojang in a steamy basement of an old warehouse soon to be demolished. I was a slothful youth in a community where those who had  “athletic talent’ were encouraged and given resources.  Resources came from the blood sports-hockey mostly but football too. With small size and zero movement capacity I was soon weeded out.