When I was a kid, I remember coming across a strange drawing that depicted the general parts (and proportions) of our brain that controlled the various parts of our body.  Most of us have seen it in biology class in school.  Sometimes this type of diagram is labeled a “homunculus”, though that can also refer to a small humanoid.  Anyways, it always stuck in my head because of how distorted the parts of the body appeared to be (big face, tongue, and hand, followed by tiny everything else (like the trunk, hip and leg regions).  Doesn’t it seem ironic that the largest and strongest muscles in the body are controlled by such small parts of the brain, while our facial muscles, mouth and tongue, along with our hands are controlled by huge portions of our brain matter? Upon further reflection however, it should make perfect sense to the karate student.  We spend a huge amount of our training time, struggling to control and coordinate the large and powerful muscles: the legs and feet which make up our lower half, along with the hips (which connect upper and lower parts of the body), back muscles, shoulder muscles, abdominal “bricks” (for those who still have em, [...]

During our college years, Sensei Peter spent our parent’s hard-earned monies that they invested in our education on: lunch and snacks at old Hemenway Hall, shooting pool, relaxing in Hamilton and Sinclair libraries, practicing karate, training to become AF officers, and…going to class, haha.  The truth be told, I am sure that the biggest slice of our day’s pie-chart was actually spent…..playing foosball or table soccer.  Yes, that old game with the little plastic men and ball that was so popular before the advent of video games forever banished it to fond memories of the 1970’s.  We played many hours each day until no one could defeat us at the University of Hawaii.  On weekends, we would roam the various pool halls, game rooms, and other college rec rooms in search of viable competition.  Since the challengers would usually have to pony up their quarters, Sensei Peter and I usually got to play most of the night for free.  The favored commercial brand back then was the Tournament Soccer machine (I hate to admit that I still own a commercial coin-operated TS table at my home and Sensei also had a table at his home for many years).  Playing with other skilled players [...]

I always know when October and the holidays are coming around each year, as we get a slight increase in cancelled classes due to activities at the Momilani Rec Center.  This go around, class for this Saturday, Oct 7, is pre-empted by the annual Fall Craft and Gift Fair, running from 9 am to 1 pm.  So, instead of training, you could actually go to the dojo and look for Christmas presents early in the shopping cycle. When one can’t train at the dojo, there are various vicarious venues that one can choose to augment class.  One of the easiest is to watch a short video.  Here is one that I sent out a few years ago, likely before many of you had joined our group.  With the recent decision to include Karate as a sport in the 2020 Olympics in Japan, it seemed like a good idea to resent the link out so one can see what Olympic-level kata will be like.  I have watched the performance a number of times just to appreciate the high level of technical ability these young karateka have achieved.  It is from the World Karate Federation 2012 Championships.  It is the winning three-man team from Japan, performing the [...]