A Tjimande Takedown

Back in 1987 Tristan Sutrisno held a workout out in my backyard for us. There he shared a tjimande takedown.

I filmed that portion of the workout and it is here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PAAMDaSdik

These are screen shots of the takedown.

 

 

 

And a Japanese version of the same move.

 

The early Ti or Toudi Instructor

During the time when the art was Toudi of Ti, the role of the instructor was a very different thing than what instructor has become. Certainly the instructor passed along the art to be taught, but there probably little relationship to what the instructor has become.

 

First the instructor most likely had to have been a member  of the families that their art, Toudi or Ti, was developed for. They were trained themselves, and did not shop around for an instructor, as they were directed towards the instructor of their family. When they learnt their art, they would have proceeded to begin to function in their family role where the art was but a fraction of their adult role. They would have served along side their fathers, cousins, etc. all with their Toudi or Ti at their beck and call. As functioning members of their family as they progressed they also would have married, started families of their own and in turn directed their eldest son toward the same training.

 

Likely they would have retired after service, and having been successful their other family members would eventually selected them to become an instructor. Knowing their art, and knowing that they knew exactly what new students needed to be trained for.

 

The young students would have had no say in the selection of an instructor. That they would suffer the trials of a new student, waiting, service and/on intense training, their own fathers and other family members would be counseling them to stick it out. Then the training would not be random, but each task along the way was to prepare them to be successful. And eventually they would be prepared to the extent they were ready to move into whatever their family role was. Likely that was the end of the training period. I find it inconceivable that their family would not have been involved, even if indirectly. They would have had access to their friend the instructor and would follow their progress.

 

Most likely at that point they would enter the training other members of their family underwent to keep themselves in shape as required, any other skills probably was a result of being surrounded by others, older and more experienced, as their role evolved in life.

 

The instructors most likely would get together to discuss what they had seen and where they saw their art developing over time.

 

All in all quite different from the role of instructor this day.\

Another mornings thoughts August 2019

 

When you think about the origins of Karate you begin to realize that was a very different world where Karate was created than  the world you live in today. It developed for a private need for families to use in the service of their country. And the instructor only taught students who lived in a walking distance from him.

Which meant everyone in the area knew what they were doing, what their character was, that and their training was something their family sought for them, preparing them for their greater family role. The instructor came from those same families and the training he offered was just as focused to give them what they would need in their larger family roles.

That led to a tighter relationship between family, student and instructor than any of us experience this day. And I am sure your students do not as a group live within a walking distance of where you teach.

You had fulfilled the needs of your students when they were trained so they could take on the roles of their positions in their families. They were not to be students for life, or to be trained to become instructors. There was a definite endpoint to their studies.

Then when things opened up and karate was taught to students in the schools and to others outside of the original families, there were still so many links to the older personal traditions too.

What we do is built on those foundations, but in very different ways. I often think on this as I deal with ageing and disability that I possess.

The hardest thing is not the restrictions that have been placed on my Karate and t’ai chi. The hardest thing is I don’t get to work with others and continue to develop my understanding of the arts I love.

So I still practice abet very slowly. Think about my karate constantly. Realize I know so little and then still work to understand a bit more. Every thing I’ve learned was a struggle, nothing was ‘given’ to me and many, many of the lessons I’ve lived the hard way.

My senior students have been thoroughly trained over their decades with me. They do not need anything else, but there was so much more that I saw I took a friends advice and saved as much for them as possible on my blog.  For what is  not written down can become vapor-ware. And perhaps on some future day it may be useful for them or a student of theirs to have access to what I have seen.

But now living far away I share some of the entries many places. I find there are too many things never discussed and I hope something might spark discussion where I can learn more. There are rare occasions that happens. But for the most part I never hear a response. Nothing new about that for decades before FaceBook I did the same on the Discussion Groups and found pretty much the same thing.

But it seems somebody pays attention. I have never felt anything need be hidden and want everyone to access these things. Now I seems that I have had some response for over 550,000 views have been made on my blog.  Of course there are things I do not post there, instead send privately to my students, I am quite sure they feel too frequently. 

 

I am just trying to ensure that I have left nothing unsaid.

 

For one Goju perspective on Seiyunchin kata

For one Goju perspective on Seiyunchin kata

There is Chinen Sensei,

Including the kata and the applications of it for him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AatUgA38MnE&t=475s

“I have become a desert creature.”

Then I got ready and went out for my morning walk.

“I have become a desert creature.” I remember that line from one of Frank Herbert Dune books.

And perhaps the same might be said of me,

For this morning I observed something move and then took a photo.
It does appear something Herbert might have described in Dune.
For it was a rabbit, almost invisible, in its background.

Which in a way ties into those tale about Kusanku kata,
from one point of view.

 

 

Now what do you wish to call this?

 

 

Koan definition is - a paradox to be meditated upon that is used to train Zen Buddhist monks to abandon ultimate dependence on reason and to force them into gaining sudden intuitive enlightenment.

 

Shuzan held out his short staff and said,

 

“If you call this a short staff, you oppose its reality.

If you do not call it a short staff, you ignore the fact.

Now what do you wish to call this?”

 

A Glimpse of Nothingness

 

 

Let me take a different tack, I want to talk about students (of all ranks) and their leaving training.

Now I didn’t teach commercially, making my living training students. And although I taught for free my standard were not less than the ones I was trained under. The same examination standard was used for every student regardless of age.

 

But students  come and go, and always for their own reasons. Whether youth reasons or adult reasons even after being a black belt for 20 years, they find their own reasons to leave. You know how many students all of us go through for each black belt we produce. I can recall individuals who left the day before their black belt exam, I can recall individuals who left the day of their black belt exam and I can recall individuals who left the day after their black belt exam.

 

As for youth the standard I followed meant they would train between 7 to 9 years before that black belt examination. Then they graduated school and 100% of them moved on as that is what young adults do. Only 2 of them later returned to training as adult black belts, and that was right for them.

 

My adult program was much smaller, averaging 6 – 10 students. And they averaged over 17 years training if they chose to become black belts, but even they they had reasons to move on.

 

Not everyone there were exceptions and they run my program this day.

 

However the thing to understand your actions touched every one of their lives no matter how long they trained.

 

No one really talks about this, but to mention how many beginners you go through to find a black belt. And no one really talks about what occurs then.

 

But for each one of them you made an impact that will stay with them.

 

I just reread a book that brings just that point up. The book is ‘The Empty Mirrow’ by Janweillem van de Wetering. He was a citizen of the Netherlands, and undertook a trip to Kyoto in the 1960’s to join a Zen Temple and study Zen. He did not speak Japanese and it goes into great detail what a painful  experience that was sitting hours a day meditating. That and all the assorted tasks such as gardening, cleaning, assistint the Temple Cook, etc.

 

It was a very interesting journey covering several years. He did not reach satori for his beginning koan, and in the end he suddenly chose to leave. The Master of the temple made the specific point that what he gained and carried  with him would continue for his life.

 

No one talks about what the training they received (a day, a month, a year or many years) contributed to their lives. In fact the longer I trained youth I  became aware the greatest contribution to them was not that they stayed to black belt, rather that they learn they could learn, each time they acquired a new skill. That would stick with them and they knew with work they could learn anything.

 

It was no different for the adults, they relearned  they could learn, and would not forge that. If they had to make other choices than continue training, they would always remember they could learn.

 

Now Janwelling van de Wetering went on to become a very good mystery writer, I always found his books enjoyable. In my opion he could be best described as a baroque mystery writer, because of the depth of his books, and often he was able intertwine Japanese themes. His most famous books were about a Dutch Police Detective.

 

Then at a later date, as described in his book ‘The Empty Mirror’ he was able to continue his Zen stories in America and also make progress in his Zen studies.

 

The truth is there is a whole lot more than karate going on in a dojo.

A look at Aikido Principles

A look at Aikido Principles

Inspired by Shioda Gozo’s book “Total Aikido – the Master Course”

As you get older your muscles weaken,

And you can no longer lift and pull,

In the end there’s a limit to physical strength, no matter how you build it up.

That’s why Usheiba Sensei says hat

Unlimited strength comes from breath power.

In effect, it is based on natural principles.

If the other person comes powerfully against you,

And you respond simply by taking his power into yourself,

There is no need for effort.

 

 

 

Shioda Gozo

 

 

Chushin  Ryoku – the power of the centerline Keeping your centerline straight.

 

 

Shuchu Ryoku – Focused Power The power that is developed by unifying the whole body

 

 

 

Kokyu Ryoku – Breath Power Bringing together sensitivity, breathing, and rhythm into a focused power

 

Ki is the mastery of balance

 

 

 

 

 

Irmi – Entering A body movement that allows you to move in to the side of uke’s body

 

 

Kaiten – Turning Envelop uke’s movement in your own circular power

 

Extending you partner’s body - By causing uke to overextend his energy, you make him powerless

 

 

Timing – Grasp the moment to take over uke’s power

 

Using your partner’s energy – Catch the timing of the oncoming energy.

 

 

Controling uke’s knees Apply your energy against the weak point

 

Atemi – striking The moment of contact becomes the strike

 

Ichitaita – one against many Hold an opponent to catch an opponent

 

 

 

This article is not meant to instruct, rather to hopefully inspire you to further study on your own to understand what each principle applies and then work to use them in your own art.

 

The lesson is never over, strive to become more than you are.