Yakusoku kumite

Sports Karate is fun But you have to concentrate on Form, too.

Peter Here;

These last couple of weeks Shiramizu has been focusing on the Kihon Kumite syllabus, which is particularly useful to me as my JKF Wadokai Shodan test looms ever nearer.

What has been particularly concerning me with this series is the concepts of maai (distance), tai sabaki (body movement) and the nagashi block. Because of my problems with go-no-sen that I wrote about last month, it means that I rush a little and tense up. This means that my covering arm in yakusoku kumite ipponme becomes a jodan harai uke, and is incorrect. Also I keep turning my body into a neko-ashi kamae with the counter punch instead of seishan dachi; I'm not quite sure where this came from as it's not correct in any syllabus version. Just a case of my body telling me where I want to go, perhaps?

Gohonme is also proving problematic, but thanks to my aikido training I can better appreciate the ten-gai movement principals when applying the arm lock to your opponent. Ten-gai is where you move your body to face the same direction as your opponent, creating a stronger position for you and pulling the attacker off-balance. Accompanied with a lock or throw, this is a very important principle.

Once again I've been scribbling down notes and pictures in my training diary, trying to keep the comments made by Arakawa Sensei and the other Shiramizu Staff in my head between the end of training and heading home.

dedicated, or just too slow?

Shodan shinsa - black belt test!

Erica receiving her black belt from Arakawa Sensei in the Shiramizu dojo several days after the shodan test. (check out the pink Japanese tabi socks...!)

Also, click here Erica's short bilingual video message on the first night of wearing her new black belt! (From Sensei's blog!)

Erica here.

Last Monday, the 22nd of March, about 15 Shiramizu members and myself attended the shodan test (Wadokai Kanto Area Dan Examination, or in Japanese, Wadokai Kanto-chiku Shodan Shinsa, 和道会 関東地区 昇段審査) in Chiba. Because the Shiramizu tournament was on the same day, we participated in the opening ceremony that morning first before rushing off to the exam.

Kikuchi Sensei accompanied us that day and we arrived just in time for the pre-test seminar. There were about 90 people in total I would guess. About 70 were there to try for their shodan (1st degree) and most of them were kids and teens along with a few university students. I think I may have been the oldest person in the shodan category =_=' The other 20 were candidates for nidan and sandan (2nd and 3rd degree) and most of them were adults.

We were all seated on the gym floor and called up 5 at a time to do standing kihon and ido kihon. After a short break we were called up again to do 1 kata (for the shodan candidates) or 2 (for the nidan and sandan candidates). After another break, we were asked to do kihon kumite and free kumite right after that. Now all this may not sound very difficult and in essence it shouldn't be because we should have trained so much that it comes to us naturally when we are up there. The thing that got me the most that day were my nerves. I couldn't even think about what I was doing because I just blanked out. Fortunately, my muscle memory kicked in and carried me through.

It took about 4 hours to get through everyone and in reality we only spent about 5 or 6 minutes in total up there in front of the examiners and everyone else. At the very end, results were announced. Most shodan candidates passed, but only a few of the nidan and sandan candidates passed. Of course, all the Shiramizu members received a pass! It was a happy day for all, except for the fact that we had to miss the Shiramizu tournament to be at the exam =(

Sorry, I was too distracted to take pictures..so there are none for this post. Gomenasai!

(Editor's note: We're of course very happy Erica passed her shodan in Japan! This is exactly what we're hoping for from all the interns each year, to try hard continuously to the point they have developed to the next level in their Karate, and then they can formally realize that improvement by passing a milestone event here like achieving their next dan rank! Just aiming to pass the next dan test only is not the goal, but more a recognition that the efforts they put into their daily training are paying off.)