Moving forward.

 It's been a few months again since a post...  I thought I was back, then bam! Another tear another setback and more rehab. Fortunately I didn't lose any time from work. 

The Dojo beckoned this morning. We were in the minuses a 5:20 am in my part of the World, so being very cautious I started with a good half an hour of Junbi Undo. (Preparation exercises) Exercises that involve bodyweight, body resistance and stretching. 

I only used the Dojo tools today. No Kata at this point as sudden stops in movement aren't good for injury recover or so an expert in sports med tells me. Couldn't get stuck in to a Makiwara either due to the shock generated through the body, but all in good time.

I'm the wrong side of 55 now, considered old by some. 

I prefer to look at it that I'm just getting going. With more than 3 decades training behind me, I see it that I've easily got 3 left in me, but now with more knowledge and experience under my belt, so to speak. 

What I do know is that I don't want to be limited in moving around like I see a lot of my peers. At this point in my life Karate is more about maintaining good health and being able to enjoy a good future and continuing to move forward. It's not about living on past glories and stories or being stuck in an arm chair reading a news paper or watching Netflix every day..  

Stay strong and healthy out there... 

Until next time. Jony.

Life hits hard.

 It's been a while that I have written on the blog... life gets in the way sometimes and hits hard. But this being said, I'm now back.

And what of life? Well, it's easier with Karate in it. This is something I have come to appreciate more and more as my existence on this large rotating globe moves on. 

I'm not talking here of the Karate that the likes of little kids practice or that of which is found on the high street of any large town or City. No, it's the Karate that is practiced in a similar way of anybody who has a home Gym. It's easy training in a group, all that is needed is to develop a habit of showing up and being told what to do. 

Isolated training requires a different mindset. Its a mindset of pure discipline, tenacity and Will. Boxers and Weight lifters of some years have this mindset. To go and train by themselves, going through the same routines and sets day on day rep by rep for slow gradual improvement .

I don't do Needy people. And heaven knows, there are lot of those around in our modern world. Look around and the future is not too bright with their Namby Pamby ways and ideas. 

But this said there is hope. As long as we have those who pursue a solitary life of self improvement through their actions of Discipline, Tenacity and Will, then there will always be a strong societal backbone when it is needed and called upon. 

I'll leave this post here with a quote from Sylvester Stallones fictional Character Rocky Balboa. 

A little goes a long way.

 The weather has turned here in South Australia, there is a distinct bite to the wind and the Dojo is becoming like the winter icebox I have come to know so well. 

Its cold outside 

Training in the cold is always good when it's over. In a conversation today, I talked of how to overcome low motivation. Something the cold weather seems to embrace as it is always more difficult dragging yourself out of a warm house in to the cold to train. But then again, with this said, it all comes down to discipline. 

I read a post last week that said, if you do something for just 16.5 minutes a day, every day, then at the end of a year you will have done 100 hours. I used this in the conversation I had {did not take credit for it} and said the most difficult thing was actually doing the first 5 minutes. 5 turns in to 10 turns in to 20 then 30 and maybe 40. Which if you did every day then more than 240 hours would be achieved in a year.

The Karate maxim of doing a little every day never rang so true, and if nothing else gives purpose and meaning to what might otherwise be sedentary and mundane. A little really does go a long way. 

Be ready....

 Where I reside was a life choice. It's a sleepy little town with low crime and almost zero violence. I like it. It is a complete contrast to the urban areas of inner and outer Birmingham where I grew up and lived for forty years.

But this said, there is always the occasional wanker who might just be out to try and ruin your day. I experienced such an asshole today.

Minding my own business he threw verbal abuse at me for pulling up at a petrol pump he wanted to use, apparently I should be a mind reader and understand that although he was facing the wrong way and turning around, I should have know he was next in line. So acting all tuff he verbally abused me. For about 5 seconds, then he stopped. I wonder why that was. Well, he was faced with an imoveable force greater than himself, an imoveable force that is no stranger to being accosted albeit not that often These days and, as is the norm he turned to mush. Altercation over and he never got hurt.

Ok so my little story, whilst being dead set true is one thing but, it got me thinking and raised a few questions.

The small town I live in is under development and is set to grow quite substantially.

Q,  so will this mean more assholes?     A, quite probably.

Q, Will there be an increase in crime and violence.                     A, Probably. .....solution- work more on fitness and speed to eliminate self doubt and to create readiness.....Better to be prepared and not need it than to need it and not be prepared. 

It's a changing World we live in with snowflakes, namby pamby's and those easily offended like woke people. The thing is there is little to no patience that these people have and flying off the handle so to speak is a normal occurrence for them, they just don't know what to do when someone doesn't give a flying FK about them .... My advice, be ready. 

Going soft

 

Late night training in front of the wooden mirror....

As the title of the post suggests, this has been me. 

It's very easy to let life, injury and the grind of 12 hour rotating shift work get in the way of training, tiredness is ever present.

But this said, when you realise that you are going soft, it doesn't sit right. Training lately has been spasmodic at best, and Ive actually caught myself making excuses not to. Quite different than having a reason.

Tonight, and quite late I might add, I faced the wooden mirror (makiwara) for more than an hour. By the end of looking at myself I was no longer soft. Sore and a little bloody, but certainly not soft. 

When part of an Authentic dojo, a lesson early on was to be "honest with yourself" and if you can't be that with you, then who can you be honest with.....

So with sore hands and arms I begin a new 12 hour shift.... Feeling in general, far better about myself. 

 

 

Just you ..

 What you mean to others is actually very little. Outside of family that is. 

And whilst karate groups, organisations, clubs and even small private dojo have this 'thing' they call family, they're not. 

This is evident when you stop training with them. Lip service and b.s is prominent. 

Budo, the art of looking inward to oneself carries no weight it would seem. For if it did then outside of Karate you would still matter. 

It's a common theme,  with no difference in the work place either.

But this being said, and I know how negative the above sounds, it does help develop a ' stoic ' nature. It hardens you mentally. Words like self sufficient, tenacity, and endure have a deeper meaning. As a Karateka, you realise that all the things you thought you needed were really just add-ons, and that ' letting go ' as we so often hear, would serve you well here too.

Being yourself. Is this you? Or haven't you met that person yet? 

A poem " the glittering black" kind of sums this up. 

" With the deepest gaze in to the glittering black, to feel the hand of insignificance pat firmly on the back.

To whom does it matter when the farewell clock strikes its final chime 

Save to yourself and those who love you so, beneath the glittering black." 

Be you, train for you, learn to be stoic and know that ultimately it's just you.

Always has been and always will be

And then be ok with it...

.  

 

You must.....must I !

 So I/You, We, reside within a world, that on a daily basis decisions are made by somebody somewhere at sometime that are supposed to be in My/Your, Our, best interest. 

There's a few things wrong with this.

Firstly, and quite often the decisions made do not come from a position of experience, but are made from one of good intention. That's admirable and all that, but it doesn't necessarily mean that its right, and certainly doesn't mean that You should adhere to it. 

Being a bit of thinker, I'm quite happy to look at decisions made for me by someone else objectively. If I think that there is value in it and it ' fits' within the scope of things I'm happy to do, then ok, I'll go along with it. 

However, if it doesn't, if I'm not happy about it or it doesn't align with my values, then good luck enforcing it, because it just ain't going to happen. 

You see, far too many cowtow to others simply because somebody somewhere at sometime said so.

Be your own person. Don't be a sheep, and make decisions based and what you want, right or wrong. 

Either way, you'll be standing squarely at the feet of experience and not just because you were told to do something that isn't necessarily right.