HIS Karate-Do

Here’s a good question: “What’s in a color (belt) or rank?” The usual answer is “Whatever you place into it.” Whenever we have one of our rather infrequent promotion times, resulting in new ranks and (sometimes) new color belts, I often have thoughts about this topic rise up in me. So, if some of this sounds familiar, I’ve probably said this to many of you before… I just thought I’d finally put it down in writing. When I was in the Air Force, I recall that the professional officer corps had a ranking system that was a true pyramid. At the bottom were all of the young 2nd/1st Lieutenants and Captains. Then, as one went up the pyramid, there were far less Majors, Lt Colonels… even less Colonels and far fewer General officers. While this may seem a common sense arrangement to everybody, there are certain requirements in the system that are not apparent to those outside of the Services that act to whittle down the much larger base of incoming junior officers to those few who get to wear the star(s) of command. There is a certain amount of natural attrition within the military ranks (those like myself who [...]

I sometimes get asked questions about the benefits of training with punching/kicking into a heavy bag. This is something I don’t really begin to share with students until they’re brown/black belts. As a result, most of the training over the first few years, involves “air” techniques, which, admittedly, do not prepare one for the experience of impact has on one’s fist or foot and does not allow one to measure the amount of force being projected into one’s target. Fortunately, unlike a boxing or kickboxing program, ministry members won’t be going into a ring anytime soon and be dependent upon the effective power of their techniques in order to survive the rounds or win the fight. In fact, the Do encourages us not to seek out such competition or resolve potential conflicts amiably, if at all possible. Still, there’s the chance that one may end up in a real-life situation one day that would require the most efficient application of martial techniques to maximize the chances of a positive outcome. Briefly, my opinions on the pros and cons of early/frequent practice into a heavy bag…The Pros: 1) Very quickly, you can measure how hard you are punching/kicking. 2) You learn [...]

In my excitement at coming back home, I forgot to remind everyone that this Saturday, 28 Oct, is one of our periodic rake days at Momilani Rec Ctr. I call it “rake day,” because what we normally need is a lot of hands (and rakes) to clean the grassy areas of the park from leaves, small branches, etc. Also, we can use about three guys to bring weedwhackers and work the corner area behind the pavillion… usually Sempai’s Robert, Rodney and I bring ours, but the Molina Sempais have a conflicting engagement that day, so another weedwhacker (person and machine, haha) would be helpful. As usual, we start right at 09:00 am and if we work productively, should finish shortly after 10:00 am. Please bring your gi’s… as we’ll likely have time for some quick training afterwards (and just in case rain forces a postponement of rake day, we can still train).