One Massive Step to Learning Karate Fast

One massive step to learning karate fast. In martial arts, we are all about the mind-body connection. I have a saying I use in my dojo, “Control the mind, control the body, control the body control the mind.” as an example of the desire of remaining linked, of being unified as best one can.

We do our best, we become separated of mind and body and then we reunify. It is a process. As karate-ka we are also information, no check that, wisdom seekers. And when we find a golden nugget of wisdom, we should do our best to keep it.

With the martial arts world at our fingertips on the Web. It’s important to have a method of understanding what we are seeing, and taking an important first step to integrating the wisdom into our path.

Best Learning is Done with Handwritten Notes

It a world that appears to be flying through space at the rate of a Six Flags amusement park roller coaster Hand written note take control of the ride. Taking handwritten notes is a major leap in retention and integration.

A Couple of Points

When you handwrite a note, you have to think about it. “Of course,” you say. But there is something else happening here as well. You can’t write the note verbatim; you must condense, change, and place in your thoughts the idea you just saw in your own words.

When you grab your notebook and write, you have to slow down. Slower means more information sticks. “Go slow to learn fast.” Another one of those maxims that carry a lot of water.

I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on T.V. But I am willing to venture a guess on what is happening. When you are using your body to remember something you are getting a higher level of retention. It’s one massive step to learning karate fast. Than mind body connection again.

Every book I have written started with paper and pencil. My work agenda is kept in a notebook. I have file cards that are used to capture ideas and then sorted for later use.

Lawrence Kane and I developed a notebook for martial artists. Here is a 1-minute video explaining the design and use of our notebook:

It is a non-negotiable idea in my mind because I have found the results to get me what I want and what I need. Handwritten notes are superior to other methods.

Here is the Amazon link to Journey

This is my recommendation. Start taking handwritten notes. If you want to use the notebook we have made, go ahead and get it. If you are using another form of a notebook, fantastic. Continue. The goal is to capture important information. To not let the lesson fade like the lights at the dojo after the training.

Try the hand written note method, refine it and experience the positive result. You’re going to be grinning to yourself how well this method works.

Here are a few other links you will find of interest

Let’s Connect

KRIS WILDER

Kris Wilder is a martial artist based in Seattle Washington. He has authored many martial art books, including the classic, The Way of Kata. Making no apologies for his obsession of Football he can be found telling any who will listen about the nuances of the Canadian Football League.

December 13, 2020February 13, 2021

1 Tip on Being the Greatest Karate School

1 tip on being the greatest karate school. We live in a cost-driven world. Big box stores dominate retail commerce. Online services are driven to text and email interactions. Finding a phone number for a conversation with a vendor is a 20-minute search. And when you do get a person on the phone, they are often somewhere else on the planet working for a fraction of the cost.

Asked For It

This is what consumers want. We want cheap, fast, and enough service to get the job done. Then we want to complain about the world we have made.

As a rule, I assume when I am dealing with some business, I am responsible for quality control. I don’t like that role. It means I am working for the company for free. I’m doing their job for them. But that appears to be the world we have.

Recently I was speaking with a company that asked for the account number so they could access my status. The voice coming over the phone in a monotone replied “That is not one of our numbers.” My response was, “It says account number and I’m reading it from the email you sent me.” The voice replied, “It’s not one of our numbers.”

A condensed version of what you do not want to happen between you and your students.

Unreasonably Helpful

This is where you, running the greatest karate school become unreasonable. Unreasonably Helpful.

Unreasonably Helpful looks like this. The moment at hand may well be the other person’s responsibility, their fault if you want. But you are going to fix it in spades. It’s the 1 tip on being the greatest karate school.

“Did we pay you for this month?” “I don’t have that information right now, let me check on it and I’ll have an answer for your next class, does that sound good?”

They are relieved of responsibility and you made their world easy. And, we have no idea what kind of hell their week has been. Go ahead and round out the sharp edges of the world for your school members.

Have I not gotten paid for a uniform sent home with a, “You can pay online later.” I sure have, but the value of being unreasonably helpful has paid off in a positive tone and a good experience. Positivity and good experience are spreadable, they are contagious.

In a world of limited, cost-saving customer service, go so far in meeting your student’s and client’s needs as to be unreasonable.

An Example of Unreasonably Helpful

I’ll leave you with a story of being unreasonable. A student came to class without his belt. The Divorced dad was standing behind him apologizing as his son’s belt didn’t find its way to the dad’s house that afternoon. “Just a moment.” Excusing myself for a second I produced a yellow belt.

Seconds later the kid was on the floor happy and kicking. The Dad asked, “How much for the second belt?” “I got you on this one,” extending my fist for a fist bump.

This moment isn’t about the cost of a belt, it is about being unreasonably helpful. Referring back to the earlier experience on the phone about the account number not working. It’s about a policy of extending one’s self.

Setting the experience of your martial arts school separate from the rest of the world. This separation is important. The discipline, the physical and mental challenges, yes, we all get that, we all do that, but it is about the margins it is also about being unreasonably helpful and running the greatest karate school.

Look for it and the 1 Thing Will Appear

The great thing about this policy is when you begin to look for it, it will appear. And you get an opportunity to set your school aside from a world that often doesn’t cooperate with your students.

What a wonderful place for your school to be held in their minds. Special, helpful, easy, and fun.

Here are a few other links you will find interesting.

Let’s Connect!

KRIS WILDER

December 12, 2020February 13, 2021

4 Fast Ways To Getting Fast Karate

4 fast ways to getting fast karate, and one big idea. Getting fast can be about getting stronger and working with a coach. Make no doubt about it a professional athlete can jump high, run fast and bench press until the sun goes down. That is a high level of output.

These skills are based on the physicality of the person. Physical prowess will fade. Boxers fade, football players fade, even professional pool players can suffer from age. Cataracts restricting sight or Parkinson’s disease can rob a pool player of their calm hand.

Every day you get older. Age is a fact and you can forestall the inevitable but every day without exception, you get older.

You say “I am older and I need to know the four points of being as fast as I can.” Or you are younger and want to be as fast as you can be – this is how using 4 fast ways to getting fast karate, and one big idea get you to that place.

The Big Picture – Make Contact

Poor contact is a failure and slow because it wastes time. Poor contact does not weaken your opponent, and you expend energy for nothing.

If you were keeping score the scoreboard would read your score a “-1” the opponent has not lost anything “0”.

Hard contact rocks the opponent. Hard contact takes the opponent out of balance, especially the unskilled opponent. This rocking of the opponent means they are in a defensive position.

A strong initial strike can and should rock your opponent. The test is are they on their heels, bent over, turned, or twisted. These positions are an outward expression form the body things are not going well. The body senses the bad position and corrections are needed.

The Body Will Try to Stabilize Itself

The body will try to stabilize itself. A skilled opponent knows better and can countermand the bodies’ natural tendency, or build off the action. The opponent must adjust their body, regain their balance. In this short window of opportunity, the opponent has difficulty generating a strong counter-attack. The formula reads this way:

You: a strong strike = Them: unbalanced = Them: rebalance and use a counteraction.

The chart below shows the green “rebalance” this rebalance, or righting of the body is an action that takes time away from the opponents to respond, this is when and where your attack is continued. The ability of the opponent to get a counteraction quickly on you is not good – hence red.

4 Fast Ways To Getting Fast Karate

Closest available weapon

The closest weapon means shorter distance, shorter distance is less time. It is that simple. If your lead hand is the closest weapon then you should use that lead hand for the first contact. This means that even if you have your non-dominate hand forward that it the hand to use. Shorter distance means less time. Less time is faster.

Driving in makes you faster

Moving into your opponent shortens the distance and therefore time, and on your terms.

Small Mass v. Large Mass

A large roundhouse kick takes more time than a short front snap kick. Argue about the effectiveness of one versus the other. The laws of physics tell you the leg is big and it takes time to move. Moving the leg from the back to the front of your body takes time. With the circular path of a roundhouse kick, you need superior timing and above-average athleticism. The less mass you have to move the faster you can move it.

No Delay

A delay created by leaving the mind in and on a technique makes you slower. No Delay becomes deceptive; deception equals the appearance of more speed.

These rules are seen as obvious, yet often we ignore the apparent. We are familiar and the familiar we tend to take it for granted. Like the concrete sidewalk, you use instead of a muddy path.

Don’t get bogged down in the muddy path. Use the 4 fast ways to getting fast karate, and that one big idea.

A few other posts along the same line you may enjoy

Let’s Connect

KRIS WILDER

December 11, 2020December 25, 2020

Karate Move Too Risky for the NFL

A karate move too risky for the NFL was developed by David D. “Deacon” Jones. Jones was an American Football player. Jones was dominant at his position of Defensive End.

He specialized in sacking the Quarterback. Dropping the Quarterback for a loss of yard and stopping Running Backs for no gain was his job. Jones became the best gaining the nickname, “The Secretary of Defense.”

Here are a few of his accolades. 1980 Inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. 1991 Recipient of the Vince Lombardi Award. In 1999 he was the recipient of the Gale Sayers Lifetime Spirit Achievement Award. In 1999 he was awarded, “The Order of the Leather Helmet” by the NFL Alumni Organization. The Leather Helmet is the highest honor. Retiring, In 2009, his jersey number 75 the Rams guaranteed no one will wear his number again.

Jones changed the way the position was played. One of the techniques that he used was the head slap. The move is exactly what it sounds like a slap to the head. Jones said about a head slap, it was designed “To give myself an initial head start on the pass rush, in other words, an extra step. Because anytime you go upside a man’s head, or woman’s, they may have a tendency to blink their eyes or close their eyes. And that’s all I needed.”

Watch Jones in Action

Click on the picture below and go to minute 1:20 to see Jones apply the head slap in several instances. All with no mercy.

The word Hepataku is Japanese for slap. Slapping the head is used in karate.

In the attached video I show how you can use the head slap in your karate bunkai.

You can find it in your karate even though I show it is in this short video from Seisan Kata of the Goju-Ryu system.

An Example of the Head Slap In Karate

Adjusting for distance the head slap is versatile. In close range the heel makes contact. The result is a powerful blow. At a longer distance the slap becomes a finger whip, aimed at the eyes. The power of the technique originates in the body and extends outward to the palm.

This is a proof point from classic karate and the modern arena of athletic competition as to the effectiveness of the head slap. Truth transcends time. It is worth pointing out Jones started tapping his left hand. He was protecting his hand from the modern football helmet.

Call it an arms race. You do this, I’ll do that to countermand your effort to stop me. The National Football League finally banned the head slap in 1977 because it was that effective, and dangerous.

The old karate masters used it because it works. They put in in their forms. I can’t help but think of the Concussion Protocol in place in the modern game that such a concussion inducing technique could be allowed in any manner.

The head slap is a Karate move too risky for the NFL, But we are under an obligation. We are beholden to understand the places this technique appears and its proper use. To bring it into the light, train it, and understand it.

Here is some other articles you will enjoy

Let’s Connect

KRIS WILDER

December 10, 2020December 25, 2020

The Secret to Better Karate Discipline

The secret to better karate discipline. When we look at the people we admire they always possess some form of discipline. A focus, a clarity that leads to achievement.

Here is a checklist audit to help you get a better sense of your discipline.

Discipline Is Ritualized

Discipline is ritualized. Ritual builds consistency and as humans we love consistency.

This is a checklist for you to begin with. You will take note there is no, “I will do 25 push-ups every morning,” aspect to the list. The reason is all action, all discipline begins with the mind, the initiator. These are features of discipline that set you up to have success. Think of them as setting the table so you can enjoy the meal.

Here Is Your Checklist

Morning

1. I get out of bed every workday at the same time

Yes Sometimes No

2. I get out of bed at a set time on the weekend, not the same time I do during the week, but I do set a time

Yes Sometimes No

3. I fall asleep to a screen. I have my phone in my hand until I fall asleep, tablet or T.V. on

Yes Sometimes No

4. I hit the snooze button

Yes Sometimes No

5. My keys are always in the same place when I wake in the morning

Yes Sometimes No

6. I know what I am going to eat in the morning

Yes Sometimes No

7. I have media I consume every morning that helps me keep on time, and keeps me positive

Yes Sometimes No

8. I take a moment to meditate, pray, or reflect most mornings

Yes Sometimes No

9. I know what I am going to wear the next day when I go to bed.

Yes Sometimes No

Score each answer this way Yes = 1, Sometimes = 2, No = 3.

The largest score you can get is 27

The lowest score possible is 9

Like golf the lower the score the better. The lower your score the more ritual you have in your life the less anxiety you likely have.

Organize Your Day

These questions are not a recommendation but serve as an indicator. They are indicators of the level of organization you have in preparation for the next day. Starting the day after a poor nights’ sleep and with several decisions to make before the day begins? That formula makes for an unnecessary challenge.

You can start a plan by using these nine questions to form the beginning of your program. Or adapt and improve what you already do.

Caution! Only choose one addition, deletion, or change to start to get success. Too many changes at one time are not the best choice no matter how high your enthusiasm.

You will notice the items on the list are small, almost too simple, and that is why they work in setting the path to the secret to better karate discipline.

Don’t Rush It

We have all listened to the person that has a list of New Year’s resolutions. As they are ticking off the items on their list, we are saying to ourselves, “Yeah…that’s not going to go very far.”

It takes time to establish a disciplined ritual to your world, don’t rush it. But do make the choice to do so. Do the check list. And then adopt the small forward leaning actions.

A few more posts you may find of interest

Let’s Connect!

KRIS WILDER

December 9, 2020December 25, 2020

Small Wins Win The Day

Small Wins Win The Day “Keep working at it you’ll get it.” They are trite sayings, “Just keep working.” The Carolina Panthers of the National Football League (NFL) use the motto, “Just keep pounding.” The idea of just keep working is seen as a positive and it is expressed both small and large. Small as a parent telling their child, “Just keep working,” to professional athletes in the NFL. As pointed to earlier.

Forward Progress

This idea of forwarding progress is echoed at every level of our world.

The difficult part of applying this idea is when things are hard. It is the mental game that makes the difference at this point. Not how big are your biceps, and not how big is your heart, but how focused you can make your mind?

The focus of the mind in hard times is a challenge.

Here is a method of focusing your mind and getting some positive feedback. Positive feedback is important. We love positive feedback, even if it isn’t true. There are few things better than having an important person in your life lie a little to you. “You’re the best.” “You looked great tonight.” “That was impressive.” “You are so caring.” It’s not completely true, yet in most cases, we respond positively to these wonderful lies.

Our minds pick up the positive juice of the moment. We are subject to what is going on around us, what we see, and what we hear. If this response wasn’t true Horror movies would be out of business. No good movie executive is making a movie that doesn’t work.

Small Wins Win The Day Only If You Work It.

Here is your execution method. Take the smallest action. Let’s think about sports. Your team is losing and you are on the bench, not in the game. It is difficult to watch. Here is your small action. Lean forward in your seat, elbows on your knees. If you think that is silly. Test it now.

Sit in your chair back straight and hands in your lap. Feel your brain. Now lean forward elbows on your knees. Feel that. That is the small forward movement, it’s is true positive action.

Small Wins Create The Loop

These small forward movements build on the positive feedback loop. It is small, but it is as real. Taking the success of the simple leaning forward experiment you did. What is the next thing that gets stacked on top of it? Remember it needn’t be big.

Are you fooling yourself? No, you are aware of what you are doing. It’s the conscious manipulation of your mind.

The small action in a positive direction can take on many forms. And these forms are as diverse as we are. Yet that is universal as well. The touch of a loved one, the kind word, the leaning forward on the bench, or winning at a few rounds of a video game.

All of this stacks-up, and you should seek positive moments out and once found engage with them. Even when you know what is going on, that mass of protein awash in chemicals kept in the darkness of your skull doesn’t know, it responds and in a positive manner.

Here is the simplest of positive actions, walking. You are stepping forward, aren’t you?

A few post you may find of interest.

Let’s Connect

KRIS WILDER