Doug

Breathing kata

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For a long time, I have been trying to tie kata with breathing and meditation techniques. A few weeks ago, I was doing kata at home and stumbled upon something that I don’t remember doing. Before each move of the kata, I took a very deep breath and then, like always, exhaled when I completed the move. For example, in Heian Shodan, when in the ready stance, take a deep breath, then downward block, exhale and hold the movement. From there, take in a another deep breath, step forward, punch and exhale. Before each move of the kata, you take in a deep breath and then exhale as you complete the movement. I did 10 katas this way and noticed that my moves were more relaxed, I was more mindful of each move, the moves felt as powerful as always and the pace of the kata was slowed down a …

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Black belt equals no ego?

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I have spent the last six months adjusting to being a black belt. I have learned some interesting things and one that stuck out, just recently, is the lack of ego. Too much ego, not enough brain…. When I was coming up through the ranks, I was very concerned about what others thought about my Karate. When training in the dojo, I was always looking for approval from my Sensei’s, my examiners, other students and everyone who watched me. When I would spar, I would always use my best techniques against anyone that I was sparring with just to show that I had skills or at least the skills that I thought I had. Instead of working on the techniques that I needed to improve on, I would always us the same attacks. I never wanted to use techniques that I knew I wasn’t very good at because my ego …

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Black Belt; the Karate journey has just begun.

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First, let me back up to the beginning of June….. It was a week before my Karate examination for Shodan and I made sure that I did everything I could to take my black belt on the day of my exam. I trained harder than ever before. I did over 300 katas in the two months before the exam, studied my Japanese terms, did stance training and pushed myself harder in my classes than I ever did in the past. I walked into that exam more than ready to take my rank and earn my black belt. Two days after my exam, I learned that I had passed. After almost six years of training, taking up to five classes a week at one point, reading every Karate book that I could get my hands on, assisting with Karate classes for over three years and living, breathing and sleeping Karate, I …

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