Tag: martial arts

Moksu: Does It Actually Have A Martial Application?

Posted on by charliedw

For those not familiar with the term, Moksu it is Japanese for the kneeling meditation at the beginning and end of a martial arts class. It is often seen as just clearing the mind from the day’s ups and downs to prepare you for training. It does of course do that, but it can actually represent a lot more in the long term. Apart from just clearing the mind, when practiced regularly it can over time help to completely silence the mind. Silencing the minds usual internal chatter has a feeling of peace and tranquillity (a bit like the sudden quietness of turning off a factory air conditioning system).

This can sometimes be achieved quite quickly, but sometimes it can take years. How often have you knelt there thinking “my knees hurt”, “how long is this going on for”, “I hope we do sparring tonight” or “I hope we don’t do sparring tonight”, whatever! Continue reading “Moksu: Does It Actually Have A Martial Application?” →

Martial Arts: A Mental Rehearsal For Success

Posted on by charliedw

In neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), they have a technique called Mental Rehearsal. This is where we know that we have a particular situation coming up and we rehearse/visualise how we want it to go in our minds a number of times before the actual event. It could be a grading or a competition. Or it could be an everyday life event like a works meeting where we have to make a presentation or a job interview.

It is often said that we only use about 10% of our brains. I think it would be more correct to say that we only consciously use 10%. Our unconscious minds control many of our behaviours and automatic responses, but can be accessed with various techniques. The strange thing about our unconscious minds is that it does not know the difference between what is real and what is imagined. For example, have you ever been watching a scary film and found your heartbeat increasing or your breathing getting shallow and quick (effects of adrenalin). Then the villain jumps out unexpectedly with a burst of dramatic music and nearly jump out of your seat.

Why did you react like that? You know that you are safe in your home, watching the TV, on your sofa right? Continue reading “Martial Arts: A Mental Rehearsal For Success” →

Adaptive Karate Blog: With John & Elaine Johnston

Posted on by charliedw

John and Elaine Johnston have started up their own blog which will be well worth checking out. Sensei John Johnston is a 6th Dan Shotokan Karate and the people who he has trained with reads like a “who’s who” of early UK Shotokan Karate. He has competed at high level when it was much rougher than today’s competitions and has also done a lot of door work.

His wife, Elaine is a 2nd Dan and has an interest in psychology and Yoga, so she also bring her own unique insights into the mix as well. This will make it a very well rounded martial arts blog. Continue reading “Adaptive Karate Blog: With John & Elaine Johnston” →

Diaphragmatic Breathing In Martial Arts

Posted on by charliedw

Diaphragmatic breathing is used in many traditional martial arts, but I don’t think that all martial artists completely realise the full extent of how important this really is. It actually helps us on a number of different levels.

But first though for anybody new to martial arts (or this concept) lets have a look at what diaphragmatic breathing actually is. Most adults breathe into the top of their lungs and as they do so their shoulders and collar bones rise slightly. But with diaphragmatic breathing, the diaphragm (which is a large internal muscle at the base of the lungs) is used. This pulls down on the lower part of the lungs, opening up the whole of the lungs and thus pulling in more air (hence more Oxygen). When breath is pulled in this way, the shoulders and collar bones do not rise. However, as the diaphragm pulls down it displaces the lower torso organs and the stomach area in particular is pushed outwards. Continue reading “Diaphragmatic Breathing In Martial Arts” →

Engage Your Opponents Brain To Increase Their Vulnerability

Posted on by charliedw

Since the last of the Neanderthals died out about 20,000 years ago the human brain has continued to evolve from what was primarily an animal brain governed by instinct, to a much larger and more complicated brain capable of logical thought. A very large part of our brain today deals with communication, reason, social behaviour/interaction and a whole lot of other things that other animals are not capable of. The ideas of guilt and remorse, right and wrong, good and evil, are all absent in the animal kingdom.

However, we still have the primitive parts of our brain which controls many of our more basic instincts, including Continue reading “Engage Your Opponents Brain To Increase Their Vulnerability” →

Martial Arts Marketing: How to grow your business By Graham Butcher

Posted on by charliedw
Graham Butcher

I asked in my Newsletter and Facebook page if people would like another category on this website for information on marketing their martial arts clubs. Several people replied that this would in deed be useful. My friend, Graham Butcher, author and one of the World’s leading authority’s on Stav has taken the initiative to write the first article for which I am very grateful. So below is Graham’s submission, I hope you find it useful. Continue reading “Martial Arts Marketing: How to grow your business By Graham Butcher” →

Mind Like The Moon & Mind Like Water

Posted on by charliedw

Mind Like The Moon (Tsuki No Kokoro) and Mind Like Water (Mizu No Kokuro) are old Japanese/Chinese phrases which are integrated into Zen and martial arts and are inter-related to each other. This posting looks at them primarily from a martial arts context.

Starting with Mind Like The Moon, whereas the light of the moon shines on everything below it evenly, so you should see everything when facing an opponent. Clouds blocking the moonlight are likened to nervousness, fears, doubts and distractions blocking your mental clarity. By seeing “everything”, I don’t only mean Continue reading “Mind Like The Moon & Mind Like Water” →

Kaizen: Continuous Improvement And Martial Arts

Posted on by charliedw

Kaizen is a Japanese concept which basically means “continuous improvement”. It can be applied to business, engineering, management; in fact, just about anything. It is a very powerful tool for self development.

The idea is that you take one small area and work on it for a week. Depending on what field you are working on, it can be something as simple as just smiling more often (which can be good for building business or personal relationships). By the end of the week, it should have started to become a habit. Then you pick some other small improvement to focus on. After a year, you should hopefully have made 52 small improvements. This obviously all adds up to a very substantial (and very deliberate) overall improvement.

Very interesting you may say, but what has that got to do with martial arts? Continue reading “Kaizen: Continuous Improvement And Martial Arts” →

Is Joint Pain Interfering With Your Training? And What Can You Do About It?

Posted on by charliedw

It is very important to look after our bodies, especially those of us who put extra duress on our bodies with regular training. However, many people develop joint problems throughout their martial arts careers and simply assume that it is the price we pay for training and/or getting older. But although some training methods can be damaging, there are other things that we should look at too as I’ve learned from my own personal experience of consistent knee problems.

Although I’ve had some knee injuries caused by training, my knees actually got a lot worse during an extended period when I was out of training due to domestic issues (very long story).

Did you realise that our feet were not designed to walk on a completely flat surface? But what do we walk on all day (indoors, at work and on the roads); then go and train on in bare feet? Yes, flat surfaces!

The reason that our feet have an arch in them is that Continue reading “Is Joint Pain Interfering With Your Training? And What Can You Do About It?” →

Do Our Training Methods Damage Our Bodies?

Posted on by charliedw

We so often hear that martial arts are good for our health and well-being, but is this always the truth? I would say in the main . . . . yes.

However I do feel that there are exceptions. All to often you hear of the more mature warriors amongst us having hip or knee operations. Many (who are not professional teachers) have to give up training all together. So if martial arts are a lifetime study (as is often said) how come the people who are left training over the age of 50 is such a small percentage.

Funakoshi, who introduced Karate from Okinawa to Japan, said in his latter years that the Karate being trained at that time in Japan was very different to the Karate of his youth.

The Karate that Funakoshi would have learnt in his youth in Okinawa would have had Continue reading “Do Our Training Methods Damage Our Bodies?” →