Adapting to Environment and Limitations

I work for a seasonal distribution company. The building is in an industrial complex off a major highway. The space is divided between offices, a showroom and a warehouse. My office is in the back of the room (no window) and I cannot see the door from my desk. The building is alarmed and a low chime rings when a door, window or dock entrance is opened. The complex is busy with regular traffic (trucking companies, salespeople, package delivery services and the USPS).

Unexpectedly on Monday, I was alone in 25,000 sq ft of space. My co-workers were sick or away at trade shows. To make matters worse, I could not hear well. My left ear is driving me crazy and is completely blocked. All I hear is constant ringing. I went to the doctor and he prescribed ear drops. I have a follow up appointment next week. I could not hear the door chime.

There was at least one salesman who dropped by on a cold call. A customer picked up a large order of baskets, a lost truck driver came in for directions and a person stopped by to see if we were hiring. The UPS man made his scheduled delivery and pickup.

What did I do differently on this particular Monday?

I moved out of my office and sat in a seasonal employee desk which was facing the entrance. The desk was in an open space next to a window. I made sure the warehouse dock doors were secure and the only open entrance was the front door. When visitors came, I did not mention I was in the building alone. There is a company truck parked out front so it appears like there are several people in the building. I kept my cell phone and car keys in my pocket.

I made minor adjustments to my work day that only took a few seconds.

This post has been sitting in my draft folder for a few days. I read the post this morning and I wondered how this post would be perceived. Do the minor adjustments make me seem fearful? Paranoid? Prepared? Aware? My answer: Aware. On that day, I had a limitation...hearing. I was aware of the limitation and adjusted accordingly.

Thank you and welcome to the new readers and followers of this blog! I appreciate your comments and thank you for reading.

On a side note: I am still struggling with my ear. On Thursday, it opened for a few hours and it was wonderful! I never had a blocked ear before and did not realize how sick it makes you feel. There are a lot of Internet suggestions on how to unblock an ear including ear candling. In this 15-45 minute procedure, a hollow candle is burned in your ear to create negative pressure. Uh...no thanks!

About Knives

Journeyman from Japanese Jiu Jitsu is posting a Knife Survival Series.

From his article:

To understand how I've come to arrive at my conclusions, and where my opinions and strategies come from, I'll share the following:

I've been lucky enough to have cross-trained with a true master of Kali, and with several other high level knife fighters. I've learned a great deal from them, and some of my content on knife survival has definitely been influenced by this training.

While this has proved invaluable, the bulk of my material is as a result of real world application or observation, mostly from my work experience. I am also part of a larger group which analyses any use of force by law enforcement agencies. I am privy to the nature of violence towards police and the public and measure and evaluate the effectiveness of the response to it. As such, I am involved in the ongoing process of developing training methods and methodologies to respond to the realities of policing in major urban centers. The remainder of my opinions stem from ongoing research - from books, blogs, training, experimentation, interviews and seminars.

Check out his entire series at Japanese Jiu Jitsu: A Journey

Solo Karate Training

A few weeks before Christmas, I saw an old friend. We we both in line waiting to fill our gas tanks. The line was long because the grocery store was running a promotion and it was the last day to redeem gas points. I earned $.80 off per gallon! He was parked a few pumps away so I did not recognize him at first.

There were several people in front of me. I parked my car and walked over to talk to my friend. It was a Saturday night and I had just dropped my daughter off at the school dance. My friend lives a few towns away so I was surprised to see him. He told me he was headed to the dojo to workout. I asked if he was going to workout by himself. His response...

"It is one of the best ways to workout"

I have been thinking about our brief conversation and my own practice. As a kyu rank student, I learned in a group setting. The classes were large and the students were of all belt ranks. When I was training for shodan, there were four of us working together. My one friend and I would work bunkai in the living room. We would move furniture to clear out an open space. Once I began teaching, class time was for the students. I would go to seminars and Honbu workouts to focus on my material. In our dojo, a group of black belts meet each week to work on material (contact drills, two-person forms, weapons, kata...etc.)

But how often do I walk through the dojo door and train alone...

Truth...not often.

My goal for the month of February is to spend more time in the dojo practicing karate alone.

What is your experience? Do you train alone, with a group or a combination of the two?

Snow Shoveling Safety

Last February, I wrote a post about Snow Shoveling Safety. I wrote the post because my Dad made a visit to the ER with chest pains after a day of snow shovelling. This past summer my Dad had pacemaker surgery and is doing well.

The Northeast has been hit with several snow storms in January. It is just enough snow to create the "bread and milk" panic in the community. The snow started early yesterday and dumped 8"-10" of snow in the area. I called my parents to check on them. My Mom answered the phone slightly out of breath.

Me: "Have you been shoveling?".
Mom: "I don't want your father out there shoveling by himself."

Me: "Kim (my sister) is on her way up to shovel and you told me Johnny (my brother) offered to stop by after work. I am also available to help you shovel.

Dad gets on the phone

Me: "Have you been shoveling?"
Dad: "The heart specialist told me I could do whatever I felt comfortable doing"
Me: "Really?"

Stubborn! He know he has help but wants to shovel on his own.

Please be careful shovelling snow. A few tips from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons:

Shoveling:

Warm up your muscles. Shoveling can be a vigorous activity. Before you begin, warm up your muscles for 10 minutes with light exercise. Be sure to include your leg muscles—heart attacks and similar injuries are sometimes the result of working the smaller muscles of your arms and back while not using the large muscle groups of the legs.

Pace yourself. Take frequent breaks and replenish fluids to prevent dehydration. If you experience chest pain, shortness of breath or other signs of a heart attack, seek emergency care, such as by calling 9-1-1.

Use a shovel that is comfortable for your height and strength. Do not use a shovel that is too heavy or too long for you. Consider buying a shovel that is specially designed to prevent too much stooping. Space your hands on the tool grip to increase your leverage.

Push the snow instead of lifting it, as much as you can. If you must lift, take small amounts of snow, and lift it with your legs: Squat with your legs apart, knees bent and back straight. Lift by straightening your legs, without bending at the waist. Then walk to where you want to dump the snow;holding a shovelful of snow with your arms outstretched puts too much weight on your spine.

Do not throw the snow over your shoulder or to the side. This requires a twisting motion that stresses your back.

Be safe and enjoy the snow!

Things I Only Understood After Black Belt

The Wednesday night class in our dojo has been mostly black belts. Two of the students (a father and son) are new black belts. They tested for their shodan in Okinawa Kenpo Karate and Kobudu during the summer of 2010. The father told me a story about how he expressed to his wife (a 1st kyu student) how different it was to be a shodan than a 1st kyu.

It reminded me of Sue C's excellent post called The Black Belt Paradox where she makes the following observation:

When I look at who it is that tells me it’s not about the black belt or that we don’t need coloured belts, I realise that they are all (no dis-respect is meant here) – black belts! It seems to me one needs to acquire the wisdom and experience of a black belt to realise that getting the black belt is not important and only really represents the beginning. I can ‘know’ this but it remains precisely that – knowledge, not wisdom. I have to go through the process myself of converting this knowledge into wisdom through practice, learning and experience and to help me do this I need my belts, all of them! I call this the Black Belt Paradox – you need to acquire a black belt in order to truly understand that ‘it’s not about the black belt’.

Sue is right. There are things I only understood after I earned a black belt. Here are a few:

1. Black belt is the beginning. The kyu rank students in our dojo hear this statement a lot. We tell the students how much more there is to learn and study.

2. Black belt kata are those kata that come later in the syllabus. I remember learning a "black belt kata" when I was a new brown belt. I learned the pattern to Passai at a seminar. I thought it was cool that I knew the pattern to a "black belt kata". I didn't realize at the time I didn't really "know" it. I could move through a sequence of movements. Turns out it wasn't so cool because I should have been focused on my current material. We do not try to let students get too far ahead with their material. As a kyu rank it is tempting to want to learn "new" and "more". There is simply too much material that needs to be learned before shodan.

3. The use of the word "Know". After I tested for black belt, I realized how little I actually knew. This feeling hit me the moment I tied my black belt around my waist. We test for shodan at the Federation training camp. The guest instructors are dojo heads, karate federation leaders, war heroes and authors. They are people who have been training 30-40 years. And there I was with a shiny black belt and three years of training. I have been a black belt for almost 15 years (in July 2011) and I still feel the same way. The amount of information to "know" is incredibly overwhelming. There is a lifetime of learning.

4. Black belts are students too. I never gave this much thought as a kyu rank. As a black belt student, I am still learning, exploring and discovering.

5. A black belt brings responsibility. I remember thinking a kyu rank student might ask me a question and expect the correct answer. What if I did not know the answer? I found out it is ok not to know the answer and it is an excellent opportunity to search/learn the answer. The new shodan I wrote about early in the post let me know how he makes sure he is in correct stance during class. He noticed the new white belts watching him and wants to be a good example.

6. Your karate changes as you age. It becomes more about technique, function and conservation of motion.

7. You need to make the kata your own.

8. Basics are awesome!

I am sure there are more. The above list represents a few of the things I only understood after I was a black belt.

And it is still a work in progress....

Can You Learn Karate from a Video?

One of my 2011 karate goals is to learn a specific kobudo kata. I have attended a few seminar sessions on this kata in the past but it never stuck in my brain. Small portions of the kata are familiar but for the most part I am learning the pattern from square one.

I have never tried to learn a kata from a video. There are many people who excel at learning in this manner. I know several people who have tried using a TV and a large mirror to reverse the directions to ensure they are moving the correct way. I have witnessed students (from other styles), who learned Okinawa Kobudo from the videotape series, compete in tournaments. In addition to moving in the wrong direction, the competitor added a roll fall and did not properly identify the kata. (Not a good idea when the creator of the video (my instructor) was center judge in the division.)

Here are some of the benefits from learning kata from a video.

1. Flexibility - You can learn at your own pace.
2. Time - You can watch the video whenever you want.
3. Focus - You can devote time to a specific kata or technique.

Here are a few of the disadvantages.

1. No instructor to ask questions.
2. No personal correction by an instructor.
3. Depending on how the video is shot...there may be problems following directional changes.
4. Not enough information due to time limits of the video.
5. You have to rewind...a lot.

Have you ever learned kata from a video? What advantages/disadvantages did you encounter? Would you recommend this type of learning?

So how am I doing with my project...I have learned about 1/4 of the pattern from the video. My plan is to learn a portion of the pattern and practice before I move on to the next section.

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Describe in one word why you write or read martial arts blogs.

My word...

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