Routine; the Slayer of Awareness

When you’re following the same commuter route morning and evening it’s so easy to slip into autopilot. Yesterday morning I was in the middle lane of the motorway cruising at around 65mph in heavy traffic, as I do every morning.

We slowed to 15mph, passing the slip road which always builds up with congestion – it’s the same thing every morning.

I flipped on the radio.

We slowed further to 5mph for a few minutes as people futilely swapped lanes – it’s the same thing every morning.

I flipped through the channels, in no mood for the arguing presenter and politician, the blathering DJ full of ‘news from the jungle’ or the stale slice of 80s pop – it’s the same thing every morning.

We stop-started for a few hundred metres – it’s the same thing every morning…

…Then the tall artic truck next to me in the right-hand lane honks. It’s dark outside still and a silhouetted figure points down into the lane ahead of me. I see the tail lights I’ve been following for five miles. Nothing significant there. My eyes refocus and I peer around. Another truck, high-sided. Infront of that… HEADLIGHTS.

What the hell? The car was spun about 170 degrees the wrong way. Now THAT doesn’t happen every day…

When we do something for the first time its absorbing. Its new, challenging, sometimes its even scary. When we do it a second or third time it still takes a lot of our attention to learn the process. As time goes on the subconscious begins to learn the ins and outs of the process until we can do it without thinking.

My girlfriend’s learning to swim and the way she describes her progress reminds me of learning karate. The first few times its tough to simultaneously think about where one hand is going, where the opposing foot is going AND remember to breathe. I assured her that after a while she won’t really be thinking about any of those things and they’ll seem completely natural, like walking or talking.

And there’s the challenge. Routine journeys like travelling to work or the shops can be so routine that we switch off mentally and our awareness shuts down. Crossing the same road each day, pulling out at the same junction into rush-hour traffic time and time again. These repetitive processes make it very easy to not noticing that cyclist in the wing-mirror, or to ignore the two blokes who are loitering on the pavement just up ahead...

Daydreams

Classes have finished for the Christmas holidays but I want to get in shape. Need exercise and I’m not getting enough as it is.

There’s a punchbag on the way for G from Santa. That’s cool - he’ll love it and benefit from the aggression-sink. Its junior sized so I don’t suppose that I’ll get much use from it though, even when it’s free. I’d like a full length bag for kick practise, preferable heavily filled. I know that one day I’ll finally get the full-on gym with mats etc, but sometimes it’s difficult to be patient. I’ll have to promise myself not to turn it into an office, or a junk room though. Seen too many like that!

Holding regular classes would be one method of keeping the place clear for its intended use. Maybe I could even coach private sessions to pay for its upkeep.

Earning the right

Through 4 years of reading, and self-driven study of the works of Iain Abernethy, Lawrence Kane and Kris Wilder, scouring interviews with Sgt. Rory Miller for real, practical information. I now know the ‘shape’ of the skillset I want to build. I know karate was originally intended as a no-nonsense self-defence method with the primary strategy of doing damage and I’m not content with perfecting performance kata or going for competition sparring titles.

Great so far, but here’s the difficult part…

My karate must have an aspect which allows me to inspire others and to communicate a message and I need to know for my own sake and for that of future students, that I have earned the right.

I’m a Creative. I don’t mean that in a smug way, it’s just a job description. If I can’t make or produce something that inspires a response then it’s all over for me and I’ll happily get into the box.

So how does this 30 year old office worker, who’s never been in a real violent confrontation, learn and pass on effective, proven self-defence skills?

What qualifications should I study for? What hands-on experience do I require? Should I get a part time job as a bouncer to get the experience of confrontation? Do I need to spend time in the company of a corrections officer or a paramedic, in order to see and experience true violence and its aftermath?

I don’t knowingly romanticise violence or needlessly put myself in harm’s way – which is probably the biggest reason for why I haven’t experienced true violence. But I do want to learn how to prevent or neutralise a street ambush for the sake of myself, my friends and my family and ultimately bring this knowledge to others – and I want to know that my skills really work.

How do I earn that knowledge and earn the right to pass it on?

Finishing techniques

Finishing technique

Stomp kick has a circular motion – pushing outwards and up before stamping down with sokuto (footblade). This is infact a double technique. Firstly kick maegeri to side of opponent’s head, this exposes the neck for the final finishing technique.

Importance of “finishing” techniques when practising solo kata. Tension in the body and hand shapes was missing from my kata performance at the time.

I find it difficult to visualise the opponent when practising the solo form of kata. I was thinking this fact through last night and it seemed much easier to see in my mind's eye, the actual range of the opponent when facing a nearby wall! That way my eyes focused at the correct distance and I could make contact with various strikes. I guess this is yet another indicator that I need to move on from solo kata practise and start working more with a punchbag or a live partner.

I was thinking about the mae-geri/yoko-geri thing just now. Mostly Shotokan kata show yoko geri attacking to the knee or lower leg with a ninety degree aspect and shito-ryu shows mae geri for the same purpose, performed at 45 degree aspect. These are both essentially achieving the same aim. I personally have felt it easier to strike yokogeri, so I’m tempted to see how I can adapt my kata to take account of this (in my own practise of course).

Multi-tasking

There's something big I'm missing in my practise - this became evident a number of times but its important that I learn from it whilst its in mind this time!

I've trained to block, and then counter. Now I need to up my game and do the two simultaneously.

There are more than enough techniques within kata to do this, so I need to identify those techniques within Seipai (my chosen specialist kata) and drill these techniques...
Attacks will include RH haymaker. Double lapel grab etc. etc.