UCL Lost Boys

I just finished an intriguing book about, as the title of this post suggest, Elvis Presley…..er I mean Bruce Forsythe. Er…Lee.

I’m not really that interested in the more physical aspects of the guy’s life. He made a couple of decent films (Bullshit, Mr Han-man!), and is the only thing on this earth to have ever laid a finger on the mighty Lord Chuck of Norris.

No, what I was very intersted to read about were his thoughts on, in a wider sense, martial arts in general. Surprusingly, or not really considering what the higher ideals of kendo are supposed to be, a lot of it is similar to many topics of conversation in kendo, such as the idea of the centre line being pivotal, relaxtion and untelegraphed movement being key, or even the more shadey areas of being able to key in emotionally to your opponent and predict what they will do, or better yet, force them to do it for you.

The book talks at great length about his philosophical approach, and his motivation to further his technique and his understanding, and tries to address the key points that he apparently taught his students.

A good deal of it actually strikes me as very true to the kendo concept of Shu Ha Ri. He learnt Wing Chun, understood it, then made it his own. Although obvioulsy I will not claim to be the next Bruce Lee (or Naruto, or Yagyu Jubei….) this is something I can identify with currently in that I am definitely right in the mid flow of the Ha part, and shaping my own kendo much the same way as Bruce Lee began shaping his Kung Fu after developing his own fundamental understandings.  Other parts of the book also indicate the very circular nature of the Shu Ha Ri concept even when put in to the context of Bruce Lee’s life. It could be argued that he had a heightened understanding and ability for what he was doing, and yet he is known to have gone back to see his teacher to further train and learn, several years into the process of developing Jeet Kune Do. This again is something that anyone with sense sees as hugely essential to continuing to learn and improve, and maybe a reason some people don’t……., probably because they get to a point where they are unable to accept the teachings of other people (an advert for how not to use budo to “improve your character” maybe?) and so get stuck where they are. Hell, if even Bruce Lee felt that he needed to learn more from his old Kung Fu teacher in order to further develop his own style and understanding, that’s as good an example as I need.

And just in general, a lot of his ideas about challenging what he had learnt, actively trying to improve himself, learning to read, anticipate and control his opponent, are frankly hugely interesting to me. There is a lot of space given in the book to a Wing Chun exercise that helps with this, and comes across to me as accutely similar in some ways to the “conversation” that skilled kendoka are supposed to have when probing the other’s defence, trying to take chushin, and guide the other into the path you want them to go.

The book is called Bruce Lee Fighting Spirit (I think), and I would recommend at least for an insight into what I viewed as thought processes and attitudes that are extremely congruent (big word!) with what I am looking at for my own practise.

And as a further note, I do like the fact that someone who did Kung Fu more nearly 40 years ago is serving as a real inspiration to me and my kendo. That fact is also most definitely not lost on me.

I had stopped during the worst of summer, because it felt more like pinishing myself than trying to discover things. The evenings appear to have lost the worst of summer’s bite, so I’m going to get back in to it. Plus, it’s a good way of trying out the new cutting method that Okubo sensei gave the world yesterday.

I’ll still sweat like a fat kid with a cake though.

And yet I continue to put myself through the mill.

Went to practise with Yanai sensei yesterday. And failed because we missed each other in the tomfoolery with water breaks and early stoppages.

Keiko was good though. There is a really colourful sensei in charge there, Okubo sesnei, a real quick to anger quick to laugh guy, which makes him surprisingly easy to listen to and talk with. He also has this excellent ability, much like Yanai sensei, of being able to pick one important part of what you need to improve and to tell you at the right time.  I can see myself coming here more often, and as it’s close and on a sunday morning it seems pretty convenient too……famous last words!

Okubo sensei gave me a little gem yesterday. A way of cutting that I had known about for ages but had not thought about. Perhaps yesterday was just the right time for me to hear it, but I certainly like it….. it involves simply finishing the cut with your wrists as opposed to your shoulders, and streching your elbows towards the target instead of just forwards. From the side, for whatever reason, it looks like a more circular cut. I’m at the bingo hall tonight, so I shall be giving it a go. All good.

Crap. If it wasn’t for the heat right now I would be really loving my kendo!

Two weeks ago I went to a small seminar for junior high school kids, run by one of the senior teachers from Kobukan and presided over by the Big O. I woke up at 5am on a Sunday for the privelage…..but I’ll admit that it was quite fun. There were a number of intersting things throughout the day:

1) On the journey to the school (it was in the boonies, in the same way the places like Morden are called London….) the Big O, Kodama from the dojo, and I were having a truly bizarre conversation about Ozawa sensei’s recent thoughts on buying himself a grave. No shit. General thoughts were to a cheaper out of state option, in Saitama….

2) I taught a class of kids how to do kata 1 – 3. In Japanese……. that’s a first for me! It was still pretty gun though, and taking the piss out of kids works in any language (as the school teachers who were watching from the sides and laughing pointed out)

3) The keiko was a good laugh as well. I can see how teaching kids who want to be there can be a lot of fun, and rewarding as well given the right group. It made me miss the good old days at UCL *sniff*

4) Lunch was a jumbo katsudon, with two big prawns thrown on top for good measure! Awesome. Nothing goes down well like a a bit of “ebi, nihon”.

5) The journey back to fucking ages as well.

This

Should I bother?

I’ve been toying with the idea for a while, purely because of some of the absurd stream of concious type thoughts I have during my dull train journeys, from work or the dojo.

Twitter has been in the news here alot recently, because it’s one of those big growing things that Japan has suddenly grasped and become obssesed with (some record was broken recently, like the 100th twat or someting, and a Japanese dude claimed it apparently), and it’s use is becoming more and more every day, so I’m tempted…..

The down side of course is it’s just more to do……..so can I be bothered…..might be fun, might be balls….

I’m finally going home for the first time in more than 3 years, at the end of next month, for a paltry week (it’s all we could manage!!!). In the past couple of weeks I’ve had to turn down 1 booze up, 1 keiko kai, 1 family road trip to Nagano, and 2 shiai for this…….it better be fucking worth it…..

So it ended up that the trots was the mere start of it, and I ended up sick enough last week to take time of work and seek drugs from those schysters otherwise know as Japanese doctors.

*incidentally, they gave me 6 (yes, SIX) different types of medicine, which my wife duely confiscated 4 of as soon as I got home

Finally being better, and no longer pooping like a champion race horse (that’s just a figure of speech, in reality I have no idea how a champion race horse would drop one, and have no desire to find out. I imagine it being something like 2 girls 1 cup, just without the girls. Or the cup, for that matter), I managed to haul ass to the dojo last night for my first keiko in 9 days. It was fucking awful. Like, really, truly awful. I’ve lost all of my stamina, and at the worst possible time, the middle of summer. My arms were already killing me after the suburi, and by the end of keiko I was done. If I was a sausage, I would have been at the put-a-fork-in-me stage.

Not happy. I’m gonna have to get back in to the exercise thing to sort this out. I want to have my stamina back to some respectable level before the end of summer, so that once I get back from my trip back to blighty I’m ready to tear it up proper like.

This is going to hurt…

I’ve had a medium level dose of the squits (Low being simply inconvenient, medium meaning that I’m visting the toilet in double figures, High would be explosive) and I don’t know why.

It’s not food, because even the water I’m drinking is different to the day before (ie bottled and not tap), so I’ve no idea whats given me the runs!

Not nice to have the belly gargle half way through a meeting…..or the constant fear that I might simply shart and end it all.

I went to a competition again a couple of days ago, the Nakano kumin Taikai. It’s a 5 man team competition that Kobukan won last year, so we had the defending champ pressure to live up to!

Oops….

We went out in the second round. The first round was a 5-0 cruiser, with everyone working well. And then the second round, and what was basically the final. We were facing what is probably recognised as the strongest dojo in the ward, Tokyo Shudokan. Senpo draw, Jiho 2-1, Chuken 0-2, Fukusho 2-1…….and then I lost 2-1. A draw would have done it but lookig back I don’t think a draw was ever on the cards. So out we went.

It wasn’t all bad though. Obviously the result fucking sucks, but I did actually get a couple of things out of it. First, I lost ippon from what I currently see as my big weakness. Why is this good? Because I needed this to firmly hammer it in that this is wrong (my long term reader – note singular – will remember that I learn best from having done it in shiai), so this will help. I’ve no doubt that I’ll get slapped a couple more times like that too, but it will only serve to cement it. It is definitely one of those things that is on it’s way out.

The other good thing is that the ippon I scored in the second match (from being 0-1 down) came about by doing what I have been working on none stop for the past year, since Brazil. Pressured seme, a hard chushin, and not moving when they come in. So when he came in for kote, I simply stepped back while keeping my chudan, he inevitably missed because there was nothing there, and I took hikimen. I was very happy with that, I don’t mind telling you. Then I lost kote, which still sucks balls.

But the important thing, at least for now, is that

1) I got something good and useful, in terms of feedback on what I am doing now and confirmation of my biggest weakness

and

2) I got to write my name on a posh decorative ribbon that remains a permanent part of the winners flag, in big black marker pen.

Snoogins.

And the hansoku that the title speaks of? One team had a HACHIDAN as their taisho. No joke. Fucking cheats! I hope they lost.