Tony's Take on Traditional Training

Sensei Tony Christian was an eagerly awaited guest to Elephant & Castle's Institute of Traditional Karate as part of a special instructional seminar organised between him and old time friend, Sensei George Andrews. According to Sensei George they'd kept in touch throughout the years and had reaffirmed their friendship when they met again whilst making presentational appearances to commemorate the 50th anniversary of English Karate at last year's Budosai. Sensei Tony had subsequently extended an invite to Sensei George to visit his dojo in Wigan and run a special training course which Sensei George had accepted. Sensei George was now the host for Sensei Tony as he ran a special one day seminar at the Headquarters Honbu Dojo of the Okinawan Traditional Goju Ryu Karate Do Association.

Sensei Tony Christian teaching at the Institute of Traditional Karate with Sensei George Andrews in the T-Shirt behind

Sensei George had put word around his students that this was a class they should make the effort to attend and it was quite a gathering. Karate students from across the country gathered together to fill the London dojo, with Sensei Andy Barker of Hallam Dojo in Sheffield leading a large contingent from the North of England, whilst others came from Hereford, Surrey and the South coast. After a brief introductory welcome, Sensei George led the group through warm ups and handed over to Sensei Tony and we were soon to find that today Sensei Tony was in the mood to share liberally from his many years of study.

"It always got me" spoke Sensei Tony, "that when you'd see photographs of the old masters like Choki Motubu, they'd have their hands in these weird postures. I'd think to myself, surely there must be more meaning to that as the first thing we learn in karate is how to make a proper fist? Well the truth comes from looking at the history of karate and knowing that in the past it was used in the battlefield. Weapons would be taught before unarmed combat and empty handed techniques were there for if you lost your weapon. They were therefore designed to kill an opponent and that's what we are going to be looking at today."

Sensei Tony shows the non-dentistry method of tooth extraction! This was a Saifa bunkai that culminated in a choke hold.

True to his opening, Sensei Tony took us into a variety of Bunkai - applications - from the Kata of Okinawan Karate that have their origins in the martial arts of Fukkian province, China - the legendary Shaolin fighting arts. With moves from Sanseru, Shisochin and Saifa, Sensei Tony showed how these techniques could be used against an opponent with a knife to cause massive and overwhelming injury - blocked windpipes, broken necks, blindness, dislocated joints and so on. Sensei Tony spoke of how Sensei Teruo Chinen had told him to practice these for empty handed application despite their obvious connection to Kobudo.

Naturally when the knives came out and we started practicing these techniques against an armed opponent, the tempo suddenly hit a new high! Sensei Tony spoke of experiences from his youth in Merseyside and cautioned us that despite Liverpool's rough reputation, London has a far higher rate of knife and gun crime. It would therefore be wise to understand the dynamics of such a situation and master one or two basic techniques that could save our lives if push came to shove.

Here's a quick look at some of the action:











Following Sensei Tony's practical teaching, a student of his set up a laptop and projector for what would be an hour long examination into the horrific reality of street violence. Dr Gary Masterson is not only a black belt in Karate, he's also a Consultant Anaesthetist who has worked in one of the most respected trauma treatment centres in the world - Baltimore's R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center Center. As their website says:

The R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center Center is the world's first and foremost center dedicated to saving lives of people with severe, life-threatening injuries sustained in auto crashes, violent crimes and other traumatic incidents.

The trauma staff treat more than 7,500 critically injured patients each year who arrive by helicopter or ambulance — and more than 97 percent survive. The facility is the only one in Maryland with a PARC (Primary Adult Resource Center) designation, signifying that it provides the highest level of trauma care in Maryland. Shock Trauma is also the designated statewide referral center for head and spinal cord injuries, multi-system trauma and severe orthopaedic injuries.

It is named after its founder, R Adams Cowley, M.D., a pioneer in trauma care. He came up with the concept of the "golden hour" — that lives can be saved when trauma patients receive appropriate care within one hour of their injury. Medical providers from throughout Maryland, the nation and the world come here each year for training.

Since 2001, the U.S. Air Force has partnered with the Medical Center and School of Medicine to use Shock Trauma as its readiness training site for its worldwide medical personnel.

The concept of a "golden hour" would be one that recurred through Dr Gary's presentation.

At outset, both Dr Gary and Sensei Tony stressed that the presentation would open our eyes to a number of things:

1. How easy and common it is for people to get severe and life threatening injuries, especially when the head and throat are targeted
2. The sort of state you are likely to be in if you get attacked and don't try to defend yourself
3. The reality that karate, especially the older Okinawan systems, contains a vast arsenal of lethal techniques that can enable a woman to defend herself against a man or a small person to balance the odds against a big person or group of attackers

That said, it didn't prepare me for the slides that would follow! Gruesome fails to do it justice and the fact that these were all of real people wheeled into hospitals where Dr Gary has treated them made it even more frightening than any Nightmare on Elm Street style movie. Here were people with their faces literally smashed in, with knives stuck in their eyes or their throats, with their throats slashed open and much more.

A consistent running theme through the injuries was the likelihood of hemoraging causing death. A blow to the head can cause sufficient swelling to damage the brain whilst a neck injury can restrict the airway. It was a really sobering thought to see that the injuries that Dr Gary was showing were by and large caused by random drunks on a Saturday night. A trained martial artist should therefore have little trouble in causing greater damage.

A big thanks goes out to Sensei Tony Christian and Dr Gary Masterson for sharing their knowledge and insight so freely during the seminar, and also to Sensei Tony's helper (I'm sorry I didn't catch your name) who accompanied and helped with all the demonstrations. Thanks also to Sensei Daphne Leister of Camberley Martial Arts who photographed the event liberally for me! Thank you also to Sensei George for hosting this event and thank you to all the Senseis and students who made it such a memorable day that we talked about many times after.

Thursday Night Sweatshop

Thursday once again hailed bag night at Sensei George Andrews' Institute of Traditional Karate. It's a well known fact that Mr Andrews and his 4th Dan wife, Susan, are very devoted to helping children and foster care for many kids. Often the kids come to them a few weeks after birth, sometimes with drug issues coming from the mother. Yet after a time with those two, it's incredible to see what happy and calm children they turn into. They often come to the dojo and yet rarely cry, despite all the noise and bustle.

Today, the baby they are currently fostering, Grace, met her "forever" parents for the first time. She'll move in with them in December. She's a lovely baby who looks up at you with bright eyes and often smiles. Sue puts a lot of herself into caring for the darlings and always feels for them when they move on so she took tonight off training to rock Grace in her arms while we all got sweaty beating out the regular routine on the pads:

1. Reverse punchs
2. Low then high reverse punches
3. Jab then reverse punch
4. Reverse punch then front kick
5. Fronk kick
6. Double front kick
7. Roundhouse kicks

We did sets of 10 off of each side then a set of 10 more reps alternating each side so that two techniques count as one rep. It doesn't sound much yet it takes a lot of effort! I learned not to partner with someone who dawdles as you won't get through it all otherwise...

This weekend, Sensei George will host a seminar by Sensei Tony Christian, someone he'd trained with many years back and recently met up with. Apparently there will be a couple of hours of training followed by a presentation where Sensei Tony will explain, using his medical background, anatomy and how fighters may use this knowledge. I recall reading in Master Morio Higaonna's book, "History of Karate" that Master Chojun Miyagi was very interested with anatomy and combined studies from both Eastern and Western schools of thought at that time to enhance his own fighting skills that would in time become the great legacy known as Goju Ryu Karate. It's something which I've been fascinated to learn more about yet have never studied in any great depth from a Western Allopathic Medical point of view - my studies have largely centered upon Naturopathic Medicine. That looks more at how the function of the internal organs and the vitality of the body can be enhanced without surgical intervention, so I'm hoping the seminar will whet my appeitite to memorise the jargon of what's what in the body and understand it's interrelation from a functional and movement point of view. Roll on Saturday!

Saturday's Sempai's and Tuesday's Trainees

Saturday at Tooting Karate Club saw Sensei Helen Smith and Sensei Chris Poore, both regular students of Sensei Linda Marchant, take the class in her absence. She was away celebrating her partner's birthday, yet her absence wasn't enough to reduce the enthusiasm amongst the dojo and a well attended class took to an upbeat tempo with plenty of kicks being thrown. Perhaps Sensei Helen's kickboxing training has made her favour leg work? Thanks to both of them for a sterling session.

On Tuesday Sensei Marchant returned to roost and with her came a number of newcomers including Sensei Chris Poore's younger brother James and another karate-ka with Shotokan and Kyokushin experience. It was also good to see some regular faces who've been away for various reasons - welcome back Kevin and Anne-Marie.

The session's main teaching focussed on moving explosively and effectively, whether that be offensively or evasively. We trained "Tai Sabaki", or twisting from the hips as well as moving in Front Stance or Zenkutsu Dachi. Sensei Linda stressed to us that the feet should slide and not step as to do so makes one far more vulnerable to sweeping as well as unable to stop and change as easily throughout the motion. Of course the theory takes a lot less time to express nicely than the practical...

Building Power in Bunkai

Tuesday night at Tooting Karate Club saw a fair crowd gathered to receive the teaching of Sensei Linda Marchant, including Sensei Jason Rogers of Piper Hall Dojo in Kingston as well as two of Tooting dojo's own Shodan black belts and further Shodan guest of GKI lineage. Tooting Karate Club is a friendly dojo that regularly receives excellent karate-ka from many different dojo, something that is a great testiment to Sensei Marchant's prowess and reputation. It's always a humbling experience to train with her and always a pleasure to train with so many other fantastic practitioners.

We had a high-octane start to the session with Sensei Marchant in fine form, tearing through intense cardio exercises with blistering a speed that left many writhing from the burn. With a spread of students attending that day from second dan to second lesson we started with some Goju Ryu basics - San Dan Gi, or three level training - which involves stepping and punching to the head, mid section and lower region of an opponent whilst they block. As-is, it can be a wearisome type of drill training that calls out your last reserves of stamina. When coupled with suri-ashi or sliding feet movement, it takes on a heightened intensity that makes a simple form far more involved.

After San Dan Gi, we broke into two groups with the senior grades practicing Shisochin Bunkai. I was lucky enough to get the chance to train with Sensei Rogers, something I always appreciate as plainly putting it, he doesn't co-operate! When it comes to applying a lock, he doesn't just fall over like some and when it comes to attacking he puts weight into it. Therefore one's defense, counter or application must be good and strong. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to make the Bunkai more realistic in this way and Sensei and I have developed a rappore that allows us to train fairly ferociously with each other without getting personal. It is wonderful and I am glad I have someone of his calibre to lift my level.

Sensei Marchant is taking a day off on Saturday so it'll be quite a different class then. Also Josh Thompson of Kingston dojo asked if I would take him to see Sensei George one weekend. Josh is 13 or 14 and trains with good spirit. He'll make a fine fighter if he continues with diligence.

Just another manic Monday

Monday night sees me yet again under the expert guidance of Sensei George Andrews at Honbu dojo. More moving basics - sliding in cat stance, turning in Sanchin and then explosive combinations in front stance. Sensei George said that the combination of front kicks, jabs and reverse punches had enabled one of his senior - and fit - students to take his heart rate up to 180 beats a minute! It is such a simple combination and it really works the constitution.

Sensei also told me off for putting too much body into my movements. I have a bad habit of trying so hard to make a powerful movement that I ruin it for myself. It feels alien not to try hard! Yet Goju Ryu is founded on balance - it's very name implies hard and soft in harmony. So I will make conscious effort to correct this.

Gasshuku Day II

Day two of the weekend Gasshuku and now the class is open to all kyu grades. The weather was horrible and it put a lot of people off. It is sad for Sensei George when the class is small yet perfect for us attention whores! In the words of the man himself, "If one person turned up, I'd be here till 2 o'clock regardless". Truly the man's dedication to spreading traditional karate is amazing.

With a range of experience going from none (but some previous Taekwondo) to 2nd Kyu, we jumped straight into things everyone could work on - basics. After the punches came the blocks and after the blocks came moving. Moving is one of those much otherlooked things, like housework or breathing, people seem to take it for granted. Yet when it comes to moving in a very specific way, suddenly a group of grown adults looks like a bunch of shaky toddlers!

We worked on Sanchin Dachi and Neko Ashi Dachi - both stances which require attention to detail to appreciate the subtle advantages of these postures. Certainly when it comes to suri ashi or sliding feet, I felt closer to clog foot than cat leg. With Sensei George's eagled eyed instruction we were able to attend to the finer details and after an hour or so of practice, I felt I'd improved 1 or 2%. Hey, don't knock it! If I improve just 2% a week that's 100% improvement a year. However if I set my expectation as a 100% improvement in 2 weeks, I'm sure I'll have quit Karate by Christmas.

Today was a really good class, even though we only practiced under 30 techniques for 3 hours. Maybe that should read was good because we only practiced a few techniques. As Sensei George says, the concept of Goju Ryu is quality not quantity.

Sadly I'm having to cancel attending Michael Tse's class this coming weekend, which was to be a birthday treat. However an unexpected tax bill has realigned my thoughts to working longer hours...

It's in the bag

Thursday turned out to be rather problematic for me for a number of reasons. Work. Money. Sex. And the absence of all three in any worthwhile quantity in my life. So I was looking forward to releasing a little pent up energy. On Thursday nights, Sensei George Andrews opens the doors at the Institute of Traditional Karate in Elephant & Castle as he has done for many years. His dojo has a reputation for tradition, toughness and technique and tonight I would be honoured to train in such illustrious company.

Sensei George Andrews teaching in Moscow

Etiquette makes an important part of the study of Karate and there are a number of formal rules by which to abide as well as more general codes of conduct. Some of the more complicated rules can take the Western mind a time to grasp such as the concept of the precedence of seniority. Others however are much more straight forward such as bowing and saying "aregato" or thank you to teachers, senior students and training partners. Likewise the idea of wearing a uniform or gi is fairly apparent since you'd look a right fashion victim combining your latest Adidas trackie with a karate belt to denote your grade.

The standard traditional gi is white which is meant to depersonalise the training experience in the sense that we are all simply present to train together and there should be no undercurrent of "look at me" or egotistical behaviour. One trains for the improvement of one's self and not to compare between one another. If another student has a higher grade then they are the senior. If both are of the same grade, then the longest training student will be the senior. If that were to be the same then the eldest would take precedence. If one is built like a 900lb gorilla, it might make you very dangerous in a fight, yet it does not indicate that one has advanced far in their training. Therefore the white gi covers the body fully leaving only hands, feet and face exposed so there is no chance of the next door neighbour's washboard abs intimidating you!

Meeting me at the dojo tonight was Mohammed Alsam, a Shotokan Karate practitioner and founder of Aregato.com, a site that imports Tokaido karate gi from Japan. Japanese made Karate gi are well known for their sturdy construction and superior tailoring and two brands - Shureido of Okinawa and Tokaido of Tokyo - are considered the best one can get. Ah, hell, I'll say it! They are the Armani and Versace of the Karate world!

Mohammed was kind enough to bring several Tokaido gi to the dojo for me to choose from; I'd been looking for a new one for some time since first getting one from Meijin on Goldhawk Road, Shepard's Bush just over a year ago. When I went to Meijin in August to see if they had another, I found that the shop was shut and the windows whitewashed. I've been unable to contact the brothers - they were the first martial arts store I ever went to, over 16 years ago. Does anybody know what has happened? It'll be a truly sad day for the London martial arts scene if Meijin is no more. Anyone with any info, please do email me or post a comment on here.

"Tokaido gi are so hard to get hold of here in London," spoke Mohammed "and it was my experience of trying to get one that prompted me to start Aregato. To be more precise, I wanted one and so ordered a number from Tokaido and people started buying them off of me. I'm very happy to be able to help dedicated karateka and a Tokaido gi the choice of masters".

Well, the old one inch punch may need a bit of practice but at least I look the part! Actually when I first started training, I bought my gi through a local sports shop and the owner informed me very wisely that a heavyweight gi would last far longer and so cost in the long run. Hats off to the man and his psychic powers - I still have that gi to this day and it saw me through some of the most intense training I ever did. I even wore it the 1st time Sensei Paul Coleman took me to the Marble Factory.

Putting the rest of the gi away, Mohammed said "I haven't seen warm ups like those in a while". The standard Junbi Undo and strength training Sensei George Andrews asks of his students can be intimidating to beginners whilst dabs hands recognise the strenuousness of the work out. To the students of the club, it's just warm ups to an hour of bag work.

A big thanks to Mohammed for visiting, to Sensei George for organising and to Aidan for holding the pad. Thanks for a great night.

Getting into fighting condition...

Recently I had the dubious privilege of finding out what it feels like to sprain a tendon in the wrist, as well as break off a toe nail - all in the space of one class. Thank God I heal like a gecko! The Eagle eyed among you may have noticed that my logo is a modified version of City of London Corporation's crest with a fist on it. Underneath are the Latin words "Domine Me Fortum Facit", which means God makes me strong. This is a reference to spirit and the notion that as long as there is spirit still residing within my body, I am not defeated and can get up and fight on. The opportunity always comes sooner than you think as was the case when I attended a Tuesday night training session under Sensei Linda Marchant at her Tooting Karate Club.

Sensei Linda Marchant warming up at seminar in Winchester

Sensei Linda's teachings at Tooting Karate Club expound on traditional Okinawan Goju Ryu Karate with a high degree emphasis on preparing the body to withstand and deliver effective self defence techniques. What does that mean, I hear you ask. In layman's terms it means lots of sweat, puffing and panting as we bulldoze through a physical curriculum that builds the body in many ways for combat. The most basic levels would be increasing cardio ability, strength, stamina and flexibility. More advanced would be developing sharp reflexes and co-ordinated movements and more refined still would be increasing bone density and body conditioning to train the body to withstand the rigours of taking and delivering powerful blows.

Master Tan Soh Tin, Grandmaster of Nam Yang Pugilistic Association, once told me that in the old days, Kung Fu fighters would thrust their hands repeatedly into a wok full of hot pebbles as a way of developing hands that were formidable weapons. He also spoke of a tradition amongst masters practicing iron palm technique intensely, which was just to condition one hand so thoroughly it became almost like a paddle. This was the reason only one hand was conditioned to this degree - the other could then be used to wield chopsticks, to write and to do all the other things that don't involve carving someone up with bare hands that one needs hands to do! Somehow my feeble paw just didn't seem likely to stand up to the type of training needed to turn it into a paddle, not that my will to do such a thing was any the much stronger...

Training at Tooting Karate Club typically starts with Junbi Undo - a series of warm up exercises designed to limber up the body for the activities to follow. Whilst many are light stretching type exercises, some follow movements that Qigong practitioners would approve of, moving the fluids around the internal organs and shaking off the lymph. Later exercises provide mild toughening and cardio exercises such as striking one's palms with the knee or building the tendons and flexibility of the wrist so as to cope better with the possibility of it being locked or twisted by an opponent.

During Junbi Undo I felt a sense of "what am I doing this for? Why didn't I just take an early night" as one's initial movements stir up all the dross in one's stagnant lymph. As it starts to move and clear, so too the movements become easier. There definitely is a link between physiology and emotion.

Following Junbi Undo comes the fast strength and cardio training - intense sets of star jumps, press ups and sit ups interspersed with punches. Building a weapon to fight with out of your own body sure requires a lot of effort! It's at this stage the mental training is really starting. Whilst I might feel lazy and sluggish to start off with, now it's flat out to the count and the harder you start to pant, the more the mind considers stopping. You can consciously know that one more press up is not going to kill you, it's only going to make you stronger. Yet in that fleeting second where the count marches on, can you push your conscious thought to continue around your body louder and stronger than the subconscious concedes defeat?

In today's class, we moved through some basic techniques straight into body conditioning. For those of you who have no idea what that is, let's say that body conditioning is the moment when you realise just how tough professional fighters are! It's the moment when you can feel that no matter how great your technique seems, there are other dimensions to fighting.

Body conditioning, Okinawan style, builds the body up through impact training. As I understand, the human body is an incredibly adaptable vehicle and if exposed to something regularly, it reforms itself so as to deal with the experience. In the case of a martial artist, it's pretty useful if your knuckles don't break when you punch, that you don't get thrown mentally off guard by being shoved and that blocking doesn't leave you wincing. Regular practice makes it easier and using special exercises the bones become denser, the ligaments stronger and the body more used to impact.

Training personally with Sensei Linda, we begun by throwing roundhouse, or mawashi geri kicks, into each others tightened arms and lats. Not really hard, obviously, as Sensei Linda is quite capable of kicking me into my next rebirth, yet the contact was sufficient to give a feel and just enough discomfort for it to be strengthening without becoming injuring. That's perhaps the secret of doing a good conditioning session - knowing that too little doesn't build you up and too much knocks you down. Sensei Linda emphasised that time, patience and persistence in practicing little are often are the best route towards building a truly strong basis without injuring the body or aging it prematurely.

Next we moved on to working on the hands. Sensei Linda began by noting that we haven't enough stones to go around so we'd be using each other to toughen up on. With clenched fists we took turns to strike the other's palm using a hammer fist technique, thereby allowing the other to build their iron palm technique. Using clenched fists we used a backfist technique to strike the back of the other's clenched fist, almost like making a game of conkers out of getting rapped across the knuckles. Oh, that stings! And if that wasn't enough to make me realise how far removed from being a Kung Fu legend I was, we followed this with a real tear jerker! Using the open hand to strike with the back of the hand at the opponent who did likewise. Being that I had one hand in a bandage all class long, Sensei Linda and I had been pounding our (OK, my... ) left hand purple and after about the 10th strike my eyes began to water involuntarily and I began to yelp like a puppy who's foot had been trodden on! Sensei Linda, clearly completely unfazed by my efforts to point smiled and gave me a hug and released me from my failing facade of fierceness. Not only is she incredibly strong, her sensory acuity always amazes me.

We closed the session by practicing a variety of formal set moves or Kata. These combinations of techniques form the catalog of techniques from which Karate students draw and in Goju Ryu Karate, many of the Kata have their roots in Southern Kung Fu forms. With the body drawn to a heighten state by the conditioning, the practice of Kata is quite different! It encourages a broader perception of the difference between hard and soft style techniques.

Although it was less than two hours of training, each second seemed like an eternity of sorts whilst performing the hard conditioning. Whilst these sorts of traditional methods clearly promote a battle tank-like physique they do require determination and perseverance. To be at the level the legends speak about would require incredible spirit to excel and people like Sensei Linda Marchant have clearly preserved an element of this, developing hands that are powerful, resiliant and tough. And yet her hands have all the softness one would find desirable in a woman's hands with no deformities, callouses, restriction of movement or other such unattractive features. Truly they are like the well fashioned Samurai sword - beautiful yet deadly!