The director of the school, Shihan Joseph Walker, and myself

The black stripe down the center of the belt signifies the next step is Shodan, or black belt. This means I’m done testing for rank for a while, and it’s up to me to keep going to class, refining my technique, and helping other students until the big test comes.

Ten years ago, I never would have imagined I’d come this far. I’ve learned a lot, and I’m in the best shape I’ve been in since I was 19. (Yeah, I still cringe when I see pictures of myself in a gi or running kata, but I’m working on that, too.) I’m very fortunate to have found a school of this caliber so close to home, one that offers equal measures of instruction and inspiration.

Now I’m going to go cut that obnoxious white label off my snazzy new belt.

Wa-taaaahhh!

Running kata in sand was very different from the carpet, mats, or even grass I’m used to. I expected the sands to shift beneath my feet, but I didn’t realize the surface would be different every single time I ran a kata. One step would be fairly solid, the next would be wet mush. I’d plant my foot in a mound to get a good footing, then I’d jump and land in a hole left from a previous kata. It was challenging and a tough workout, but it was also a lot of fun.

Throwin' Down

After kata, we ran our wazas, which are sets of prearranged responses to attacks. The sand didn’t make as much of a difference there, only landing on sand after a throw or fall isn’t quite as soft as you’d expect. Slapping is a little more like hitting water, where if you hit it too fast it doesn’t quite yield right away and you get a bit of a sting.

On the last day we took things a bit farther. We visited a different beach, and we got right down into the water. We ran kata with waves crashing down around us, then again went on to our wazas and even added sparring to the agenda.

Plowing through the sand for a double punch

Kata in the sand then felt like practice for kata in the ocean. The currents pushed and pulled as we moved, and oftentimes the undertow would wash the sand out from under our feet. One moment I’d have firm footing to execute a kick, the next I have to hurry up and move before I lost my footing completely and fell over.

And yes, we did get smoked once. We were standing there running kata at one point and a seven-foot wave came rushing in at us. We braced ourselves as best we could, but it knocked us right on our asses. The Wife was laughing too hard to catch all of the action, but you can see the aftermath here.

Finish him!

Sparring on the beach was also a lot of fun. We had to time our attacks with the current, we had to keep moving in the shifting sands, and we used our environment by throwing water at one another for distraction. I never did get close enough to my opponent to try to sweep him, but we traded blows and I came out the winner.

Many martial artists recommend practicing in a variety of environments, and I’d like to recommend sand and water become a priority. I’ve run kata in pools at various depths in the past, but the beach was a whole new experience. On the physical side, it engages several more muscles to retain balance and execute technique. On the mental side, it requires a lot of focus to anticipate shifting surfaces and time movements with the current. A beach may not be convenient for many people, but if the opportunity should present itself, don’t let it slip away!

As an aside, be glad I can’t push scents out to you through the Internet. A karateka’s belt is supposed to retain the blood, sweat, and dirt of his practice, so we never wash our belts. I dried my belt in the sun, but the ocean has given it a rather unique funk and an almost greasy feel. I’m told it will fade in a couple of weeks, but I feel sorry for the next person I roll in a Judo match with.

I don’t know when I’ll be able to afford a return to Hawai’i, but when it happens, I’m sure I’ll be right back on the beach. I can’t wait.

Karateka on the beach

A total of 13 of us went to Hawai’i together, and as it was organized by our karate school and the majority of us were karate students, I thought this would make a great entry for the collection. Not so much for it’s photographic value, but for its sentimental value.

This was shot on the beach near the Outrigger Keahou hotel in Kona, Hawai’i. We worked out  here every morning at 6am, with the exception of the last day where we went down to the Magic Sands beach and got down into the surf.

It started with a crashed server at work. It took a turn for the better this evening when I burned through two more steps of my karate review process, leaving me only sparring and ju ju undo to complete to earn Ikkyu, or first-degree brown belt.

Then it ramped up again when I got some good news from Evileye Books, which I hope to share with you in the coming weeks. It means more work, but that’s a good thing.

Now I’m all amped up and need to burn off some energy.

A belated song of the day:

He believes he can fly

Here’s the thing about throws and sweeps, though: they’re not very painful. The first thing you learn in Judo is how to fall without hurting yourself, which includes when getting thrown. Throws like this do look spectacular, but the objective isn’t to inflict damage to your opponent, it’s to get them to the ground and get a superior position from which to work a submission (or to ground ‘n’ pound in an MMA match). Now, there are times one fighter will pick up another and slam him to the ground as hard as possible, and that can be painful, but in general a takedown itself isn’t going to end a fight.

That all said, I’ve been getting more and more interested in judo and its throws and sweeps myself. There’s some judo in the Shuri-ryu karate curriculum, and I picked up a copy of Kodokan Judo to get a more complete idea of what’s involved in the art. I’m also reading a book called Falling Hard, a great book written by a British journalist who took up judo at age 50. I’m about 70 pages in and I’ve already learned a lot of interesting things about the history of the art and its founder, Jigoro Kano.

My karate school offers judo classes as part of the karate membership, so I may take advantage of those classes later this year. I need to concentrate on making ikkyu (first-degree brown belt) first because the last stripe is going to be a tough one. This just would not be the right time to shake up my schedule. Judo should round out my skills, and should better prepare me for my black belt test when the time comes.

If I do hit those classes, though, it’ll sure feel odd to wear a white belt again.

Judo mocks your silly gravity

Judo is something I hope to work on myself, soon. There is just enough Judo in the Shuri-ryu curriculum to give karateka a taste, but the AOK offers a dedicated Judo class as well. Once I make Ikkyu (first-degree brown belt), I hope to hit more of those classes.

Not in the face! Not in the face!

Ass-whoopin’ jokes aside, it was a great demo. Wrath spent a lot of time discussing the distances between arts like karate and Muay Thai, covered some of his training, and even showed us his Ram Muay, the dance fighters perform before their matches. I was familiar with some of what he had to say, but a lot of it was new to me, especially the particulars of Muay Thai’s rules and culture, and for anyone interested in the martial arts, it was interesting stuff.

Then Wrath got to demonstrating why Muay Thai is referred to as the art of eight limbs; he started throwing punches, elbows, knees, and kicks my way.

You don't want to eat one of these

I’ve held pads for plenty of guys before, but this was the first I’ve done so for a professional fighter. Even at 70% power, I had no question I’d be hurtin’ if I hadn’t been holding up those pads. I trusted Wrath not to miss the pads and take out a rib, but at the same time I made damn sure to keep those pads out where he needed them so I didn’t set myself up for injury. One of those knees could easily have knocked out teeth or cracked a rib.

Like a frickin' freight train!

The flying knees were the strongest technique he showed off. I’m not a little dude, and if I stepped into the ring with Wrath we’d both be fighting in the heavyweight division. I even set myself into a front stance to brace against the knee. Nevertheless, those flying knees knocked me back a couple of steps with each blow. I can’t imagine the damage I’d have taken if he kept me in a tight clinch or pinned me against a turnbuckle or Octagon fence.

You can see a few more pics from the demo on my VisionCon Flickr set, and Jerrod Balzer has posted a some pictures on his blog.

The crowd enjoyed the presentation, and I felt like I learned something as well. In fact, afterward I asked Wrath a few more questions about applying a proper Muay Thai clinch, and I hope to show some of my friends at my karate school the technique.

Who knows, maybe I’ll even get an opportunity to apply it in a sparring match…

I’ve since learned the competitors hold their punches to the head back just a bit to cut down on neck injuries and limit the brain bouncing around in the skull. There are also breathing holes on the mask that can be like a cheese grater on knuckles if the competitor isn’t careful. The chest protectors, however, prevent any penetrating attacks, such as those from a kick, and spare the competitors any real injuries.

I’m thinking I’ll earn my first degree brown belt, then start looking into these other options. I’m not going to say it looks like fun, but it does look like something I should try at least once. If I’m learning to throw all these punches and kicks, it only makes sense to get a feel for them at full speed, not to mention get more of a sense of what they’re going to feel like. In our normal point sparring matches, most impacts are light and unintentional.

I don’t foresee myself posting my first couple of matches, though. Heh.

Cholesterol has been a tricky animal, but it’s under control. I take 20mg of a statin every night, and while my HDL is three points low, everything else is aces. I think part of the problem was the glucosamine chondroitin I was taking for my joints, but I’ve been seeing many reports about it elevating cholesterol and I stopped taking it the same time I started on the statin. Boom, my cholesterol dropped like a rock. (The studies may show the cholesterol isn’t going up, but I suspect it’s at least causing false positives.)

The only nagging problem I have is my weight. Now, to be fair, I’m still forty pounds lighter than I was in 2005. I also don’t put any stock in body mass index (but of course my doctor does because my insurer does), and I’ve never been the “ideal weight” for my height, even when people would have called me thin. As such, I don’t put a lot of stock in the actual number. However, I do concern myself with the extra padding I have around my gut, my sides, and my thighs.

It’s not so much a vanity thing (though I’ll admit, there’s some of that there) as it is a concern that this extra weight is starting to affect my knees and is generally slowing me down. When I spar, for example, I don’t think I’m getting beaten on skill, I think many of my opponents are simply faster. Blowing a knee isn’t going to do me any favors, either, and I don’t need this extra padding contributing to other health problems in the future.

My weight has been relatively static for the past couple of years. Here’s a picture of me from January 2008:

Wow. It's tough to look at myself in a blue belt now that I wear brown.

I should take a new picture for comparison, but really, it wouldn’t look much different. A year later I weighed seven pounds more, and today I weigh eight pounds more. That’s a small fluctuation given my weight, and I’ve been stuck right within that range.

I credited some 2008 weight loss to running, when I dropped down even lower than where I was above. I gained a few pounds back when I stopped running over the winter, but then I ran at least as often this year with no effect. I’ve tweaked my diet a bit, but perhaps not enough. One speculation is I’ve swapped heavier muscle for fat, but my pants still fit the same so I don’t think it’s that simple this time.

I think it’s time to change up the home workouts, get in some more cardio/aerobic exercise. That’s very easy to do with karate, switching over to bag work (I bought the damn thing I may as well get back to using it) and sparring drills on top of kata and wazas. Not to mention I need to start practicing my ju ju undo (free exercise) to music, which I need to do at least once to get to ikkyu (first degree brown belt).

In fact, it’s probably time to revamp the whole after-work routine. I’ve got a few ideas here that involve both karate workouts and writing. I’ll have to ponder it some before I move on to next year’s goals.

Meanwhile, it’s also time to take a harder look at my meals, both content and portion. I’ll get started right after the family goes out for Chinese tonight…

The Power Team Demo

Sometimes my 50mm prime lens is worth its weight in gold. I shot this in a high school gymnasium without flash, and I was very happy with the results. The Power Team put on a brief strength demo for our students, so I brought my camera along to see what I could capture. I sat in the bleachers with my son, and you can see more pictures from the event here.

New nikyus run the Tsue Sho bo kata

I probably should have stuck with that lens for this second shot, taken at the last graduation night at the Academy of Okinawan Karate. My friend Toby Matthieu (on the right) was promoted to nikyu, or second degree brown belt, and demonstrated the Tsue Sho bo kata. I used the regular 18-55mm lens that came with the camera and an external flash, and with the action shots spent a little too much time going back and forth between setting up for lowlight action and for the flash (and consequently had some trouble with white balance in the set). I could have solved the white balance issue by shooting RAW, but I didn’t have the space on the card that night so put it off for another time when I can do some experimentation on practice shots.

A Bald Eagle from the Columbia Park Zoo

My family visited the Columbia Park Zoo in Lafayette, Indiana, in September, and I captured this picture of one of their two eagles. This was also taken with the basic kit lens, but the outdoor environment really helped. It still amazes me how much more detail this camera/lens combo captures over my old 4MP PowerShot G2. I just wish I could have avoided the soft blur on the right edge, but that’s the result of shooting through a narrow viewing window cut into the enclosure’s fence. (I’m also fortunate the glass or plastic in that viewing window didn’t obscure the shot.)

My only concern with these is in the full size, the focus is just a bit soft. My tripod has a removable monopod, so next time I may bring that out and start putting it to use, see if I can’t sharpen things up. I’m very happy with these for the most part, but I think it’s time to start stepping up my game.