Next week I’ll start picking up some of Daredevil’s fightin’ skills when my school’s Black Belt Club works some Escrima techniques. That should be a lot of fun.

Sai Master
Originally uploaded by MikeOliveri.

I’ve not played with it a lot yet, but I’m already in love with my new Canon EOS Rebel XSi. It’s pictures are light years ahead of what my old PowerShot G2 could accomplish (not unexpected), and it amazes me how much faster it is in everything from starting up to focusing to rapid shooting (not to mention continuous shooting).

Yesterday the Midget decided he wanted to use a karate frame for his Show & Share (same as what we used to call Show & Tell), so what better way to populate it than take a new pic with the new camera? He put on his gi, decided he wanted to use Daddy’s sai, and I sent him out to the yard to go nuts.

I could nitpick a few piddly things about the photo above, but we’re both thrilled with the way it came out. I haven’t decided if it’s the best of the bunch, but it’s definitely the one he wants for the frame.

I’m looking forward to really putting it through its paces this summer and getting more creative.

Karate Moleskine

Originally uploaded by MikeOliveri.

Last week marked the one-year anniversary of my Shuri-ryu karate training at the Academy of Okinawan Karate.

It amazes me how far I’ve come in just one year. In addition to losing a lot of weight, my stances have become longer and lower, my kicks have gotten higher, and my techniques have become a lot sharper. I advanced two belt ranks, I learned two kata, and I’m learning to use the sai and bo.

What surprises me most is we never stop learning; not just new techniques, but new applications for or tweaks to what we already know. For example, just as a punch feels natural, sensei starts pointing out finer detail like elbow position. Also, I’ve been running my kata the same way for weeks with little comment. Last night, sensei tells me my hand techniques look great, now we can work on my stances in the second half of the kata.

Something else I just learned was I should have had a notebook all along. I showed up to a Black Belt Club workout and saw several people with notebooks. I asked my sensei if I should be bringing one, and he told me karateka should have notebooks at every class. He doesn’t always give detailed lessons, but he frequently throws out terms I tend to forget after a week or two.

I bought a Moleskine sketchbook to rectify that, which is what prompted the photo above. I didn’t want it to get lost in the shuffle around the dojo, so I personalized it by stenciling the kanji for the word “karate” onto the front with a silver Sharpie. The sketchbook will be a little sturdier than a lined notebook, it will allow me to doodle in footwork and diagrams, and I’ve even started turning it into a sort of scrap book by including photos of some of the Okinawan masters in the Shuri-ryu lineage. (Yes, I’m a geek that way.)

This first year has been a good one. I’m really looking forward to seeing where this next year takes me.