A happy new year to you all.
Now that the rush of Christmas is over and everyone is getting back to their normal routine I bet a few of you are thinking this year I am going to get fit, train hard and get my next grade. To be honest that’s what you should be thinking all the time and not just a couple of weeks before a grading date is set.
Now I know quite a lot of you may have had a few set backs towards your training either because of a change in your working environment, a house move or in some cases bad health. But these things are the sort of challenging torments that crop up in life and we must try to dig in deep and overcome them.
Frustration can come in many forms, sometimes because of one or two of the problems that I have just mentioned. For myself it came because of a Mr Tatsuo Suzuki who has just held a course for me at Epping. This Karate legend (and he definitely is) is a mere 76yrs old and has such a fine understanding of body movement, some of which he tried to impart upon myself and some of my students. Now I thought that I could shift myself quite adequately if needs be, but when confronted with the seemingly easy task of stepping backwards with my left foot, dropping my right shoulder and rotating my right forearm to deflect a strike from Hanshi Suzuki, I got caught every time. This was the first move involved in the basic Kihons from traditional Wado-Ryu karate which got me asking why it was a hard thing to perform such a subtle movement.
I have always maintained that we should strive to learn something new from what ever source to improve our Karate and this was one of those moments. When this happens its easy to say “So what? That doesn’t matter, I can still kick hard or I am a fast puncher”.
But for how long?
As you get older technique is the one saving grace that you can rely on in your moment of need. Strength will diminish no matter how well you train. But good body movement combined with good hand/ leg strikes and the correct mental attitude (which comes with years of hard graft and repetition of technique) - you can overcome the mightier forces that you might meet.
After an hour of doing this 'easy' little task as directed by Hanshi the frustration was creeping in. I am sure the people watching from outside the hall were thinking what a load of rubbish Karate is (ignorance is bliss!). Hanshi Suzuki demonstrated how important body movement is when confronted with an armed opponent. His assistant stabbed at him with a knife towards the chest but missed because Hanshi swiftly dispatched of him using the said body shift and put on a beautiful arm lock turning him one way and then the other. After a slight yelp and moan from the assailant Hanshi then released him.
So what am I going on about then?
There is the negative form of frustration which you use as an excuse not to achieve something and then there is a positive frustration that you can use to inspire you to move onto greater things. Its the sense of achievement and pleasure you get when after hours, weeks and years of training (and frustration) you can perform these simple easy movements. So when you show your fellow Martial artists they are either blown away by it or they say “SO WHAT I CAN DO A JUMPING SPINNING BACK KICK” and dismiss it as rubbish.
Remember that the easy things in life are not always what they seem and practice, practice,practice and frustration is all it takes.
Good luck and be Inspired.
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