Match Fight Night - Sep 9, 2006

This, our fourth ever, ‘match fight night’ was the biggest and most successful ever. We had 15 great matches between Kyokushin fighters from Mt Vic Dojo and visitors from other Kyokushin dojos, Seido, Goju Ryu and VUW Kickboxing. The dojo was packed solid with over 200 spectators and many more turned away at the door. All present were treated to 3 hours of continuous action culminating in several big knockouts.

The whole idea of the MVD match fight night is to give a good 6 minutes full contact experience to all involved. It’s a training environment where fighters, corner judges and centre refs can develop their skills in a friendly, semi-casual atmosphere. Many of our fighters this year were absolute novices. To challenge our more experienced Kyokushin fighters we matched them with VUW kickboxers who, although they gave away head punching, were allowed to use a 3 second clinch. We thought the clinch would get our guys moving and using their outside game and that it did! As expected, in the clinch, the Kyokushin fighters were at the mercy of the kickboxers. Outside their comfort zone our guys had 6 minutes to figure out how to avoid the clinch and how to be defensive once inside. It was a fantastic experience that’s inspired us to work both our moving/avoidance skills and our offence from a much greater distance than we’re used to. Best of all, the kickboxers are keen to come back this time whereas last time, without the clinch and without gloves, they found the odds were weighted far too heavily in favour of Kyokushin’s big hitters!
We’re very proud of how all our guys and girls fought and we’re grateful to all the visiting fighters, coaches, and spectators. The entire event was an absolute pleasure to organize and that was in no small part due to the fighting spirit and positive attitude of all involved. We’ve had nothing but great feedback and, with fighters already putting their hands up to be involved, we will definitely consider organizing another event in 6 months time.

No blogs... check the forum!

It was negotiated over drinks on Saturday that I should blog on the forum instead so you folk don't have to go two places and once you're on the forum perhaps you'll start posting so I can stop talking to myself!

The forum address if you didn't know is www.mtvicdojo.forumup.com

Read the instructions section first. You need to register as a user & then apply to join the members group. Once I give the okay you will be able to see all & post at will! It's a bit micky mouse but it will stop the spam!

So shhhhh... it's all quiet here... for now....

Friday

Fight training. Light variety. Class of 6. We started in pairs. One person attacking using only kicks, other person blocking & retaliating. All very co-operative. Same thing but hands, starting with one, then a fake & one, then combos of up to four where the retaliation could start after two. Moved on to either hands or legs but stuck with one good shot each time. Finished with a block to a punch where the retaliation was a takedown - left and right. It was a good relaxed but productive session. Bravo.

This week so far

Monday was another good class! 25 or more I hear. They did ido geiko, kata & sparring. Wed was kata and fight drills (copying straight off the white board). I haven't been hearing so much about what is being taught as how keen everyone is which is very heart warming. Now, importantly on Mon or Wed, I'm not sure which, Megan & Estelle asked for volunteers to help them with the Christmas party this year. So far there is a committee of the two of them plus, Mark (blue), Matt (white) and Catherine (orange). Yay, fresh blood! It sounds like they're planning a fun afternoon (suggestions so far rock climbing or kayaking) & then a byo thing in the evening. (I hope that wasn't supposed to be a surprise). So if you have any good ideas jump into the committee!

Tonight was small! Maybe I over did the pushups last week (mwa ha ha) or maybe the graders have burnout! We started with the nasty fitness routine we did in Taupo... as a warm up. Then into syllabus stuff. There was only one whitebelt expecting to grade so Sempai Conway kindly took him through the syllabus while I took the high grades for ido geiko (everybody's favourite). We went back to the blue tab syllabus and got as far as yellow! There's plenty to work on and in a small class everybody got attention which is comforting. What I mean is there was time to work on fundamentals which we can't get too much of. It's a short class, only one hour but we're squeezing in plenty & I'm continuing to concentrate on giving everyone what they need now so roll up roll up.

Don't forget it's Sensei's session tomorrow. It's so changeable in terms of who turns up that I can't tell you what to expect!

I can however tell you what to expect on Saturday. 10am CIRCUIT! Class sizes have been picking up again (maybe that's why you can't keep up!) which makes it way more fun. Bring running shoes, there's always a quick run for warm up and leave your brain at home.

Thur

We had eight... 4 black belts two greens & 2 yellows. The night went like this kata, 10 pushups, kata, 10 pushups... repeat about 100 times.

I started at the taikyuko's & went right through the syllabus doing most kata twice & putting as much pressure on as I could muster (I find it difficult to take militant seriously). My aim was to emulate the grading environment & judging by the colour on everyones faces it was mission accomplished.

It was apparent that (as always) the lower kata are ignored as exciting new kata are introduced. It's fun learning new kata but by grading time it's important that the moves to every kata are well ingrained in muscle memory so your eyes can roll back to their normal position & you can concentrate on executing a series of karate techniques with conviction in your eyes instead of rotating flashes of panic, self-doubt, determination, and wonder. Perhaps we should put that in the syllabus? O wait, we did... check out the 9th kyu requirements!

I've heard a bit of negative feedback regarding 1. a lack of written resources and 2. that students "have never been taught" certain things or aren't receiving the attention they require from their sempai.

Okay, I'll be careful here because I have a tendency to be harsh under percieved criticism but...

Get over yourself! Kyokushin is not a bit of cross stitch that you pick up, achieve measurable success immediately & then pick up & put down whenever you feel like it! You're either in or your out and if you're in it's a mighty fine idea to get your butt to the library or the 2 martial arts shops. Get yourself on Amazon or any number of kyokushin websites & start building yourself a resource library (books or dvds - it's up to you!). This is your interest, your passion & the only thing stopping you from progressing at a rate of knots is YOU!

"Do I have to know this [insert option: terminology, theory, history] now?" You needed to know it yesterday!!!! Don't WAIT to study until your sempai tells you it's "time". Don't wait because the person on your right is clueless! They might be clueless forever! I think some of them are... how the hell do you get to yellow belt and not know the dif' between gedan & jodan, how to name what you are doing, where you are striking, what you are using and preferably how to spell it! Are you going to let them be your limiting factor? Even as a white belt are you going to let the yellow belts, the browns or the blacks be your limiting factor? They might be crap! The right time to learn [insert option as above] is the day you first walked in the dojo! You might not be tested on what you read/learn but who cares? It'll make you better! You'll start noticing things. It'll raise the bar for those around you. It'll improve your understanding of karate and you won't need your sempais to be your constant personal coach/crutch. F**k, soon you'll be asking your sempais to fight your tournaments for you!

The day I see the students here taking the principles they learn in class (because I know the black belts all feel like they never shut up, repeat themselves to insanity and frequently repeat training diamonds to blank faces and deaf ears) and appling those principles to their self training (what? self training? yes!) will be the day you get whatever it is you want. If you want more from your dojo, try practicing! The facility is here all day. We have one of the best if not the best in the country! Other stylists use it! It's embarrasing to me that the BJJ students come in here most days and self train while the Kyokushin students don't need to practice, they just need more from their sempai.

I think I'm spent. The above might not apply to you. If you're happy plodding along, learning at the pace offered in class then sweet we're happy too but if you're discontented and think you're not getting the best tuition & probably the best blackbelt to student ratios in the country then take a good hard look around.

Wednesday Class

Good numbers in the senior class tonight. We had 17 colours & 5 black belts. That's a pretty good ratio!

Most of the class are preparing for grading and the black belts seem intent on doing whatever it takes to get the kyu grades performing on the day. We've got a funny mix at the moment - bottom heavy - heaps of newbies, no brown belts & mostly female greenies & yellows. As a result the black belts are noticing the dojo is missing the raw, insane discipline that it once had.

Greens are interesting because they've usually been training long enough that they can really do some damage, but not long enough that they realise they don't have to. So they instill a fear factor in the club. They're also more than comfortable with the ettiquite and appreciate a strong kiai and loud osu... they almost always know better than the instructors on pretty much all levels and often take it upon themselves to set the ettiquite and osu standard! Without them life is quiet and lacks intensity.

Browns are more interesting because they have hit the home straight to black belt. They're starting to really be stretched... put in front of the class, held responsible for the performance of the class, expected to perform better than the rest of the class (event the annoying naturals), are 'tested' regularly with hidings and otherwise taken way outside their comfort zone. Effectively we take that know-it-all green belt and knee-cap them. Even without their belt you'd recognise them by their darting eyes, they're always checking over their shoulder and somehow, even after 5+ years training, in front of the class they can't remember the basics (lucky there's usually a smug green belt to offer a noisy stage whisper). Without browns there's no-one dashing urgently from front to back and no-one prostrating themselves in a puddle of abject humility in front of the Sensei.

Without these strong influences dojo life as we know and love it is at serious risk!

Anyway, back to the class... Sempai Phil took us through trad' warmup then delegated some of the hand basics. Yellow belts were put on the spot and got a taste of being up front. We haven't had to deal with real beginners up front for a while and the lower grades might not appreciate how hard it is and what a big role we all play in making it easier. By giving a strong osu, being flexible about what you're hearing and being told, reacting decisively to instructions and offering a loud kiai the class can 'carry' a nervous instructor. It's better for the class and it'll make the new instructor more confident faster, meaning we all suffer less with truncated, slow, uninspiring basics & warmups (no pressure yellow belts).

After warmup we did some self defence - basic releases concentrating on circular movements, stance, body position. Did kata for grading and then some fight training. I think we could have gone another hour! More of the same tonight and tomorrow!

This week at the dojo

Erm, sorry, been a slack poster which is not good with my memory. Monday, I don't know! I think Chris was here! Maybe that was last week?

Wednesday, I was here. Sempai Phil took the class. There were lots of beginners which is always fun. We split the class into those who could fall & those who couldn't. I took the ones who couldn't & taught them how they can & Phil took the others for a throw. We combined the class for a basic takedown & worked on how perfecting our footwork could make a world of difference. Then we did some pad work.

On Thursday I promised Sensei I'd work on stuff for the grading in a few weeks and with a bit of imagination you could relate what we did to something that might happen in the grading ;-) We went through some of the routines picked up at camp. It'd be too easy to let them go and as they addressed very basic body positioning it's something the newbies should work on from early on. We then played with a leg block drill we also did on the weekend. It feels like a very short session finishing for 6:45!

On Friday Chris was finally well enough to take a decent class! Announcement: Chris's Friday class is back on! Megan was the only hopeful so she got a bit of one on one (& at times two on one) coaching in spinning kicks. We had a major breakthrough and by the end (I don't know how many kicks she did, poor thing) she was kicking like a pro! We spent a lot of time working out what was wrong with her technique because it was absolutely typical of most students when they first try a spinning kick. What we noticed was the problem was in the upper body. We're so used to using our upper body for contra balance when we kick roundhouse that our instinct is to do the same for a spinning kick which is all bad. If that doesn't make sense have a quiet look at those that can & those that can't.

Another 'rule' I've adopted since Taupo that might help beginners work out what's wrong with their kicks is "foot-butt-foot" ie. in almost all cases your bottom/hips should be between your support foot and your kicking foot. It's just another way of saying put your hips into it. Ugly kickers almost always 'sit down' to kick ie. have "butt-foot-foot". Again if that doesn't make sense check out your average class doing front kicks.

On Saturday Chris took the 10&11am sessions. We started with the monastery run (one set of steps - I know, soft), then did pyramid training, Lynford Christies ab workout & finished with butts. Some of us non-committed types broke Sensei Paul's rule while he was away & joined in some tourny training. It was a not too intense look at spinning kicks as well as Chris's freaky inside crescent kick. I bet I wasn't the only one who needed a nap on Sat arvo!

Taupo Camp

Mmmm... sore muscles! We had 40 something high grades attend the Taupo camp with Shihan & Sensei Eguchi on the weekend. It was a full on weekend. 6 sessions covering everything from Chinese zen meditation to kata to fighting (mmm... fighting... it was gooood). We started Friday night with basics (30 count... must do that more often!), then did some self defence (hand) techniques which were new to a lot of the room & ended with Chinese kung fu meditation!!!! I know!!?! It's most unusual for Kyokushin types to look outside our own style but clearly things are changing. This particular medidtation was popularised by a handfull of top fighters who found it beneficial to their concentration & relaxation & consequently focus & speed.

On Sat we went through all the pinan kata to make sure we were consistent (the theory being the high grades that were there represented most NZ dojos) and then gekisai sho because that's the compulsory kata in most competions & Shihan Eguchi, being international judge & kata committee member is the perfect authority for potential competitors.

Next session we did 4 new kata. The Kaikan has reintroduced some old kata that haven't been in the syllabus for a long time. (P)Bassai Dai was one & then 3 Teki kata. I have to confess the tekis were frustrating to learn in a big group because they involve only sideways movement ie. from behind they look like something reminiscent of an MC hammer video! It was difficult enough from my spot in row 3, I don't know how the back row picked up any of the hand movements! Thank goodness for video!

On Sat arvo we settled into fight training which was a well earned respite from the brain workout that morning. The entire session was dedicated to offence. Shihan ran us through the mechanics of a good jab & right, striking-moving-striking & several combinations. We did a lot of punching using just our left which was mighty effective. I must write up the combos we did but without thinking too hard we only worked our punches, a right gedan mawashi (leg attack) & jodan ushiro mawashi (spinning roundhouse to the head). It was all goood. We finished with a nasty conditioning workout which I'm sure will creep into our sessions within the week (at least by Thursday :)

On Sunday morning we reviewed the self defence & kata (surprisingly some of it did sink in).

Our final session was spent on defence. In particular we worked our defence against the 4 leg attacks, built up to middle mawashi's & front kicks & jodan mawashis. Every defence included a setup and retaliation. By the end of the class we were mixing up our new defence tricks with the offensive stuff of the previous day.... needless to say it was chaos... but I know I wasn't the only one inspired by the concepts introduced. Can't wait to share them with the class & see what happens!

Mon Wed

It's been a good week. Two full classes. I didn't do Mon but I heard it was big & Chris enjoyed it. Last night we did a quick warm up then the whole class did the 3 sokugi kata together. Good workout if a tad ugly... it takes a lot of core strength to pull of the sokugi & they're particularly difficult for beginners who not only had to worry about what direction to go in & what kick to do but also not falling on their ass! I like them :)

Then we split up. Sempai Steve N took the beginners, Sempai Phil took the middle ranks & the rest of us, that are going to Taupo worked through Passai Dai, Sepai & Garyu. Unlucky Megan & Estelle trying to pick up 3 major kata before the weekend! One's bad enough!

To finish off Sensei Paul took us for a classic circuit with the pads & bags. I kindly earned my team pushups for doing one too many circuits.. how's that work, pushups for doing too much exercise?

Tonight we're going to can the self defence & work on kata once again... it's apparent that the seniors are completely unprepared for this weekend so we need the cramming. 5:30 start!

The Nationals

The IKO Aussie Nats is a very small affair with Australia one of the worst affected by the splits post Sosai. NZ was a significant force with Warren taking the heavyweight div, half the kata competitors were kiwis, half the women & Lyndon & Dave in the mix too. (I apologise if I'm vague or even wrong, Chris was reffing ALL DAY so I was chasing kids a lot).

Kiwis placed first & second in the kata, Lisa & Rhena from Northshore respectively. Warren took out Chad (one of the Aussie big names) pretty easy I thought. Chad who's big but not that big tried to go toe to toe with Warren which was just silly. Warren then had to fight the son of the couple hosting the tournament (you can imagine the noise), Steven Cujic took the spirit award for the battle. It was a really good fight which went 2 ext (I think) & it looked like the smaller guy might have won the lung war but Warren kept some back for the end & took the title.

Dave had to fight crowd favourite Simon Kennedy (you may remember Simon from the Nats in Wellington a few years ago, in the last fight he knocked Johnny Reistad out so cold his head bounced twice on the mat & he spent most of the night in Wellington Hospital). This year he knocked out one of the North Shore boys (a Japanese, sorry I don't know his name) in his first fight. All was going well but Simon put up a lovely mawashi geri which came up under the other guys' chin (no hands), snapping his head back - I thought he was a cripple for sure but no, he woke up eventually & shook it off although he had a very peculiar crease mark down one side of his neck!!! Dave spent the next half hour rehearsing his head cover which may well have saved his head but Simon's well capable of taking advantage & took Dave out with a belly shot (I have to admit I'm not sure if it was a kick or punch, I blinked & missed it).

Rachael was absolutely gutted to lose her first fight. She was taken out by the eventual winner, Erin Pinkney (sp?). I have to say Erin was an absolute machine. She fights out of Brisbane Dojo (Garry O'Neil) & previously out of Mackay Dojo. She's been to the NZ Nats twice. The first time she was just a colt but she took on our Iris (lost) but clearly that didn't stop her & she's a really great fighter. She took the title. It was good experience for Rachael but over far too quick... so to make the trip worthwhile she got to have a crack at Rheena for 3rd place. That one went 2 ext. It was a very even match. Similar styles. I was glad I wasn't on the corner until just about the last 15sec Rachael seemed to lift a bit & Rheena seemed to flag & that's what it takes afterall. Rachael's grumpy face turned upside down & she got a cool trophy for her guts. Yay.