Smith Te II - The Return of the Son of Magnetic Monster

 

As I mentioned in my last post on this blog, a long time ago when I began to really look at what the many kata techniques that I had studied could do, a fun idea came to me. For an upcoming summer camp I would be attending and teaching at, I decided to take my new idea of a minimalist system and have some fun with that idea and share it, creating my own 4 movement system. 

Isshin - Concentration the Art: How my quest to find the application potential for any kata movement began.

The summer camp was a mixed martial group endeavor, the people there were to enjoy training with instructors from various martial systems. They were not there to learn Isshinryu, and I was never comfortable sharing my Isshinryu in those situations where the individuals were not committed to the study of my system.

But having trained in many systems over the past decade, and never placed boundaries on my own studies, wanted to give everyone something useful and thought provoking, at the same time.

I decided that I would present the 4 movements form applications I had been working on and present them as a new system called Smith-Te. It was an attempt to have some fun with friends as well as being an idea of new training possibilities. 

As it was my own system, I choose to give that system a name, that of Smith-Te.

That presentation went over very well.

Then as the year progressed and I went on into my own research, and I worked on other "useless" movements from other kata, I was becoming more comfortable that I had hit on something useful to me.

Then it became time for the next year's camp. I decided to teach my own system at that summer camp. And as I was sharing the idea of a minimalist system, I chose to call what I would be sharing as Smith Te II - The Return of the Son of Magnetic Monster - with apologies to Frank Zappa.  

I always tried to have some fun along with a presentation.  I had added two more moves to the system from what I shared the previous year, now being a system of 6 and a 1/2 moves.

I then went a step further and created a small booklet for that system, Smith-Te II.  I was not only presenting those moves, and their 'kata', but deciding to document that effort too.

Keeping a spirit of fun, I choose to name the system too, choosing a name from a favorite Frank Zappa tune from his album 'Freak Out'. That song being The Return of the Son of Magnetic Monster.

The link following goes to a blog post sharing that booklet, opening that link you will see the original scans of that booklet. Then double tap any of those shared pages which will open them up in a larger format making them easier to read.

Isshin - Concentration the Art: Smith Te II - The Return of the Son of Magnetic Monster - appologies to Frank Zappa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbIw5D_hCQ

 

Always train hard, but also keep a bit of fun in your life.