Karate and Losing Weight

This is my third blog post about losing weight and how Karate practice helps not only take the weight off, but then keeps it off.

Being a former wrestler I know how to “cut”, which means don’t eat or drink anything for a day while working out like crazy. The next day you get on the scale and viola, like magic, you have dropped 5-7 pounds. A variation of “cutting” for those of us not on a wrestling team is to take a day or two and reduce what we are eating. But this method generally does not allow for long term weight loss, and is only good for that morning or maybe even that week, because after you have let up, gotten back to normal eating patterns, you are back to your normal “walking” weight.

What I am talking about here is a steady, gradual weight reduction program where you can see the results in the first couple of weeks, and then either continue until your goal is met or be able to maintain your new weight.

Karate will help you get there. Now, for those of you thinking “I can’t do Karate, it is too hard”, let me tell you a little secret – it is not. Karate was designed and meant to be for everyone, young, old, male, female. It does not matter, everyone can do it. In 2005 I had a serious back injury at work, and at first I thought I would never be able to practice Karate again. But not only was I able to do it after a short time off, Karate actually helped me recover more than the physical therapy did and brought be back to the point were I am fully functional in nearly all aspects of martial arts training!

Getting back to the topic, Karate will help you lose weight because of these three items:

1. You will stretching, moving and exercising, helping your body burn calories.
2. You will be with a group of individuals that are supportive and help you achieve your goal.
3. The gradual weight reduction means that your body is making the adjustments needed to keep the weight off.

One of the key items here is item #2, a supportive group of individuals. When you battle weight loss by yourself, you will have moments of weakness as well as frustration. When you are in a group setting, however, you will find encouragement to battle on and achieve those milestones that you have set for yourself.

And Karate practice utilizes just about every body part and muscle, so you are getting a true full-body workout.

I will post some more about this in the next few days.

New Students to Shotokan

If you are a new student to the style of Shotokan, then let me say: WELCOME! I believe that you will find your study of the art to be as fulfilling as it has been for me. Shotokan is rich in history, it was the primary Okinawan based system brought to mainland Japan whose core foundations lead to many of the major karate styles you find today in Japan, the US, as well as Korea.

Shotokan is practiced all over the world. There are some well known organizations that represent the greater body of the art, for example the JKA and the other branches that split off from it. There are some well known people who practiced the art, including but not limited to Master Funakoshi (founder), Bill Wallace, Wesley Snipes, Lyoto Machida, Vitor Belfort, Jean-Claude Van Dam, etc.

What is it that I gain the most? Why do I stick with it this art? I believe that it is the depth of the art that is so appealing to me. Due to its roots within the traditional Okinawan based systems, you can really see the depth and beauty of all the intricate movements, meanings and postures that the art provides. It can give you a lifetime worth of material to study from, and that is not a joke.

I hope that you enjoy your time with Shotokan, good luck in your endeavors, and let me know if you have any questions or comments!

PA State Championships Update

It was a very good day for us at the PA State Karate Championships. Everyone from Ichigeki and from King Cobra did very well. Here is the break down:

Zoe got a 2nd in kata and a 3rd in self defense in the advanced Division, which is a great accomplishment.

Emily and Laura did great in the novice division, getting two firsts and two seconds. Justin won the kumite fighting in impressive style which should secure him the first place finish in the region.

Our new adult student Mike got a second place and that is really something considering he just really gotten started. Looking for great things from him in the future.

Master Hillary Barton won out and got the tournament grand champion award, which is just outstanding.

I got a first in chanbara (which is swords), and two thirds (self defense and kata). I screwed up my division in weapons and so got a really bad score.

So on a sunny bright November day, our school rocked the tournament and now we are looking forward to December’s tournament down at Pitt University!

Grand Opening

Ichigeki karate’s grand opening is set for November 20th, which is a saturday, from 9:30am to 2pm or whenever we feel like wrapping up. There will be many visitors from all over, including Master Barton who will be coming down from Erie and will lead our opening ceremony. There will be a ribbon cutting, as well as demonstrations (kids and adults, kata, weapons, self defense) and two seminars (one one bunkai and one on using strikes to set up throws). Coffee, pastries, and everyone who comes should have a good time. Hope you can stop by, hope to see you there!

Catch Wrestling Memories

From the looks of things, it appears that there is some interest from visitors to my blog on my catch wrestling piece so I will go ahead and continue on with some more memories.

As mentioned before, my father would help me with wrestling during my wrestling days in middle school and high school. He would also instruct me in some of the catch wrestling moves that he knew.

One the moves, from a position where you are face down on the mat and the person is on top, is to reach and pull the opponent’s arm and place it between your shoulder and head. Be sure to have the arm locked in as deep as you can get it. Securing it there, start to forward roll into their shoulder forcing them over your back and onto their back, where you then quickly release the arm you rolled them from between your head and shoulder and secure it with either your legs or across your mid section and pin down their upper body.

Guess I should make a youtube video to demonstrate……..

Another comment I wanted to follow up on was about the wrestling strongmen that would come into town that my father would tell me about. These were the catch wrestlers/submission specialists that would take on the local populace for a fee and would offer prize money to who ever could either beat them or last 5 minutes with them.

These wrestlers usually had a particular move that they were famous for. These finishing moves were called “the python choke”, “the pretzel hold”, “the half nelson”, etc. And these wrestlers would use these moves to submit their opponents.

With the introduction of BJJ into the states, we are seeing a return of this labeling with MMA fighters who, while they have a whole bag of weapons at their disposal, find themselves being identified with a particular move (ie: reverse triangle specialist, etc.)

I think it is very interesting to see how things come around and go back around again.

What’s old is new and what is new is old.

More later. Until then, check out this blog if you are interested in catch wrestling: http://catchwrestlingunited.com/

Catch Wrestling

My father grew up in eastern Pennsylvania, and was trained in amateur freestyle wrestling. He also learned catch wrestling, which we would call today submission wrestling. I don’t really know where he learned it from, I never had the opportunity to ask him, and when he was teaching me I was too young (9-12 years old) to know what even to ask.

Since I was wrestling in school (which was, back in the day, a sport just about everyone participated in during the winter in Pennsylvania), my father showed me some of the classic freestyle moves. Take-downs, escapes, etc. etc.

After we would practice for a while, he would then bring out the catch wrestling moves. He usually told me that they were used to stop an over aggressive opponent who might be trying to hurt you. He would come up with clever names for these moves, and tell me stories of wrestling strongmen who would arrive in town and challenge the local men to try to beat them in a wrestling match and putting up some money as incentive. The locals would pay the entrance fee with their own money to compete and enter the roped off area (usually in grass) and they would start, with the wrestling strongman usually winning by applying some form of submission hold. These traveling wrestlers had colorful names, which are escaping me now.

Most of the moves that I remember him showing me involved arm locks and using the arm to leverage the opponent into other positions.

In fact, what was really interesting to me was that at a recent Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu seminar I attended, the instructor was explaining how you need to keep your arms in tight and not let them flounder about because it is easy to snatch and lock a loose arm like that.

Reminded me of my dad and our lessons.

Wish he was still here

Judo’s North-South Effect

I was speaking with a friend and this topic came up, and it was about judo’s role in the development (or lack of) of martial arts in North America as well as south America.

Judo came to north America looking to prove itself, with some elite judo practitioners ready to take on America’s best. They took on mostly catch wrestlers, these are the submission wrestling specialists that were around that travelled from town to town taking on locals to wrestling matches with a cash prize to whoever could beat them. Most of these wrestlers were schooled in traditional wrestling and then learned the submission arts from an experienced catch wrestler.

The judo players did not always fair to well against these experienced submission pros, thus giving the impression that judo was inferior to wrestling that led to a long absence of a grappling based eastern art from entering into the northern hemisphere.

So what about south America? Judo entered here as well, but the challenges came to the Jiu-Jitsu clubs that it found, and was a traditional match up as judo’s parent art is based from jiujitsu.

As was the case in japan, jiujitsu had a hard time dealing with the takedowns and pinning techniques of judo, and as was the result in japan, jiujitsu suffered from the defeats.

But unlike japan, the brazilians were able to work through this dilemma. Instead of trying to compete in takedowns with judo, let’s assume they take the jiujitsu down, and let’s build from there. You can see that the elemental foundations of brazilian jiujitsu are starting from positions that a judo practitioner would put them in.

It was a brilliant concept and resolved the great problems of countering judo. Now it was jiujitsu that started becoming the dominate eastern arts based grappling style in brazil that started to migrate north ward, took on western wrestling and had initial success, however it must be stated that the wrestlers that it first faced were not catch wrestlers (unlike when judo first came to north America).

This some thoughts of mine. My next blog I will tell you how my father trained me in catch wrestling that he learned.

First test night at new school

Congrats to all our new students and everyone who passed their belt tests tonight in our new school, you just made history! Really nice to be in our new building, it is a dream come true!

Sent from my iPad

School is open!

Finally! Our school is finally opened. It has been a long two months, but what a great feeling. It was a tremendous amount of work to get it by the electrical and building inspectors. Now just need to finish up painting and making it look nice. Taking down the paper covering the windows tonight!

So any thoughts on UFC? The Big Country Roy Nelson match was awesome. Yes, he is terribly out of shape but what tremendous heart and skill. He did not quit at all. I truly think that if he was able to get Dos Santos Jr. down to the mat and keep him there it would have been trouble for Dos Santos Jr.

But that is Dos Santos Jr.’s strength, not being taken to the mat, and if he is, gets up really quick. How will he do against a wrestler like Lesner and Carwin? I think he will fare better against Carwin because I see Carwin wanting to go toe to toe and Dos Santos KO’ing him. Lesner on the other hand will go straight to the shoot, and Dos Santos will be taken down and pinned. But if he can last he might be able to wear down Lesner and by the third round should be able to avoid the take downs and capitalize on his strength, the stand up game.

Either way either fight will be a good one to watch. And I think Roy has proven to be the man to beat if you want to be considered for a title match.

Can kata help striking?

Question, can kata help you with striking? Is there any substitute for the good old fashion pad hitting drills. Can kata alone improve a person’s striking? If you are interested in this topic, make a quick comment and I will give you my opinion! ——— ok, no comments but there were 5 views so I guess I will comment on it then. Does kata alone improve a person’s striking? Simply stated – yes it does, but that does not mean that all you need to do is kata work and your striking will improve. If you diligently work hard on your kata, then your punches and kicks will improve, because you are working on the basic foundations of your kicks and strikes. You will be building up the muscles used in striking, you will be working on your muscle memory which will improve your striking. Now, will you improve on the more advanced aspects of striking, for example power and speed? Here I have to answer no. Developing power and speed requires isolated striking work, for example hitting the pads, partner drills, sparring and the like. This is where distance, speed, accuracy and power are developed.

Hope you enjoyed this message. Back again soon!