Post by fleur on May 29, 2011 0:52:38 GMT
This is a little article I wrote for my friends, but I thought some of you might be interested in a read on a different styles training/grading. If so - enjoy!
Fleur's Grading
So, for my friends out there who I have previously trained with and graded with we know and understand how the grading for our previous and your current clubs work. But you lot don't know how my new club works and you always ask how my club is different and I'm always having difficulty describing the differences because to be honest they seem so vast to me and I'm always saying 'just different'. Not meaning to be elusive, I just have difficulty sometimes expressing it into words, it's kinda - you gotta experience it for yourself to understand it, kinda thing.
So some of you said how'd your grading go? I said, "Sweet, easiest grading I've ever done." "Whoa, what?" some of you might be saying, how can that possibly be. New club, completely different curriculum, major difficulty transitioning yet you found the grading - not differcult?
Hmmm.... so I've been thinking about this and thought, 'yeah why is that?'
It's not that my grading was a breeze, I mean this is what it consisted of, which I thought you might find interesting:
# Warm up - I wont bore you, but even this is different.
# Kiso Tanren drills - these are the drills designed to strengthen tendons, ligaments and joints to assist with the snap that is signature to our style www.karate-kobudo.co.nz/tanren.html
# Ido kihon - basics, moving through drills
# Two man conditioning drills - conditioning arms, hands, thighs, stomach - that's right - hitting each other - hard! Implementing the techniques of: stance - shizentai or neko ashi dachi with blokes of shuto, soto, uchi, gedan. Then striking techniques of chudan tzuki, shuto uchi and a forearm smash (which is my least favourite), kicking with mei geri and mawashi geri www.karate-kobudo.co.nz/conpt1.html Note how often the stance neko ashi dachi is used, it's a very Okinawan thing.
# Kata - we preformed 10 kata. The first 8 twice - Fukyugata Ichi, Fukyugata Ni (that's Gekaisai dai ichi to my Goju friends), Pinan shodan, nidan, sandan, yondan, godan and naihanchi shodan. And the Ananku and Wankan once each. So eighteen kata - yeah I suppose I was starting to warm up by now.
# Sparring drills - partner work - simple moving drills implementing jodan/chudan tsuki/mawashi geri/uraken uchi/chudan tsuki. Then added on blocking a counter attack, then attacking again. I must say this is an area I personally need to work on, my flow sucks and sometimes I get lost as he continues to add on, then add on, then add on some more. Fortunately he didn't add on too much at the grading because we had so much to get through. But he and I know this is an area of weakness for me that needs work.
# Kihon Kumite Ni - Two man drills www.karate-kobudo.co.nz/kkumite2.html
# Yakusoku Kumite - Two man prearranged drills. Matsubayashi ryu has 7 sets. These consist of 3 - 5 set moves. One side attacks in sequence and the other side defends with set defense moves. I'm finally, after 9 months getting the hang of these - yeah! For those of you not familiar with yakusoku kumite, they are basically like learning mini 3 - 5 move kata's, but you need to learn the attack sequence and the defense sequence and you need to preform them sharply with reasonable controlled contact with your partner.
# Renzoku Bunkai - To Fukyugata Ni (Gekaisai dai ichi) Two man bunkai.
We got to sit and watch a couple of higher grades do a few more kata and that was it.
Sweet - done and dusted.
So hoping this gives you a little feel of what I did and how it differs from what I use to do. This all took just over an hour and a half, so physically not too arduous. The major difference I can put my finger on is while constantly physical, it is not a test of endurance which I find many gradings to be. It is a test of competence and assessment of technical ability. And why did I not find this grading hard (per say) was because what I have described above could have been a typical weekly class. We push through alot in each class. We have a large curriculum and work consistently hard to push through it. It has become the norm to me. I can now look forward to grading and appreciate they are a recognition of progress and not fear that I have to be subjected to a bash fest to earn my stripes. Don't take this the wrong way guys, if that's your thing, then sweet, enjoy. I'm just relaying my feelings here, not dissing anyone else's preferences. We will have our own journeys and paths to follow; ultimately we will all still end up on the same mountain top, we have just taken a different track to get there
Fleur's Grading
So, for my friends out there who I have previously trained with and graded with we know and understand how the grading for our previous and your current clubs work. But you lot don't know how my new club works and you always ask how my club is different and I'm always having difficulty describing the differences because to be honest they seem so vast to me and I'm always saying 'just different'. Not meaning to be elusive, I just have difficulty sometimes expressing it into words, it's kinda - you gotta experience it for yourself to understand it, kinda thing.
So some of you said how'd your grading go? I said, "Sweet, easiest grading I've ever done." "Whoa, what?" some of you might be saying, how can that possibly be. New club, completely different curriculum, major difficulty transitioning yet you found the grading - not differcult?
Hmmm.... so I've been thinking about this and thought, 'yeah why is that?'
It's not that my grading was a breeze, I mean this is what it consisted of, which I thought you might find interesting:
# Warm up - I wont bore you, but even this is different.
# Kiso Tanren drills - these are the drills designed to strengthen tendons, ligaments and joints to assist with the snap that is signature to our style www.karate-kobudo.co.nz/tanren.html
# Ido kihon - basics, moving through drills
# Two man conditioning drills - conditioning arms, hands, thighs, stomach - that's right - hitting each other - hard! Implementing the techniques of: stance - shizentai or neko ashi dachi with blokes of shuto, soto, uchi, gedan. Then striking techniques of chudan tzuki, shuto uchi and a forearm smash (which is my least favourite), kicking with mei geri and mawashi geri www.karate-kobudo.co.nz/conpt1.html Note how often the stance neko ashi dachi is used, it's a very Okinawan thing.
# Kata - we preformed 10 kata. The first 8 twice - Fukyugata Ichi, Fukyugata Ni (that's Gekaisai dai ichi to my Goju friends), Pinan shodan, nidan, sandan, yondan, godan and naihanchi shodan. And the Ananku and Wankan once each. So eighteen kata - yeah I suppose I was starting to warm up by now.
# Sparring drills - partner work - simple moving drills implementing jodan/chudan tsuki/mawashi geri/uraken uchi/chudan tsuki. Then added on blocking a counter attack, then attacking again. I must say this is an area I personally need to work on, my flow sucks and sometimes I get lost as he continues to add on, then add on, then add on some more. Fortunately he didn't add on too much at the grading because we had so much to get through. But he and I know this is an area of weakness for me that needs work.
# Kihon Kumite Ni - Two man drills www.karate-kobudo.co.nz/kkumite2.html
# Yakusoku Kumite - Two man prearranged drills. Matsubayashi ryu has 7 sets. These consist of 3 - 5 set moves. One side attacks in sequence and the other side defends with set defense moves. I'm finally, after 9 months getting the hang of these - yeah! For those of you not familiar with yakusoku kumite, they are basically like learning mini 3 - 5 move kata's, but you need to learn the attack sequence and the defense sequence and you need to preform them sharply with reasonable controlled contact with your partner.
# Renzoku Bunkai - To Fukyugata Ni (Gekaisai dai ichi) Two man bunkai.
We got to sit and watch a couple of higher grades do a few more kata and that was it.
Sweet - done and dusted.
So hoping this gives you a little feel of what I did and how it differs from what I use to do. This all took just over an hour and a half, so physically not too arduous. The major difference I can put my finger on is while constantly physical, it is not a test of endurance which I find many gradings to be. It is a test of competence and assessment of technical ability. And why did I not find this grading hard (per say) was because what I have described above could have been a typical weekly class. We push through alot in each class. We have a large curriculum and work consistently hard to push through it. It has become the norm to me. I can now look forward to grading and appreciate they are a recognition of progress and not fear that I have to be subjected to a bash fest to earn my stripes. Don't take this the wrong way guys, if that's your thing, then sweet, enjoy. I'm just relaying my feelings here, not dissing anyone else's preferences. We will have our own journeys and paths to follow; ultimately we will all still end up on the same mountain top, we have just taken a different track to get there