Disqus - Latest Comments for GrasshopperK

Re: What's to Gain from Pain?

GrasshopperK — Tue, 25 May 2010 21:02:43 -0000

R. Simpson,

I also never knew that people could develop hyper-sensitivity from pressure point work. It might be personal but would you be willing to share how you came to develop central neuralgia? Was this what happened in your case?

I think it's amazing that conditions like these can be so poorly understood both medically and by the public at large. I really appreciate that you've been willing to share your experiences with us.

Re: What's to Gain from Pain?

GrasshopperK — Tue, 25 May 2010 20:04:42 -0000

Thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts Noah. I too have a bit of a love-hate relationship with sparring but when I catch myself feeling fearful or resistant I know that it's a sign I'm getting pushed outside my comfort zone which for the most part is a good thing.

It is interesting also watching one's thoughts in training and how they impact on body tension and movement. It's a difficult thing to describe but as you say a large part of it is about overcoming our aversion to discomfort and learning to neutralize our traditional reaction to pain and fear. To open up and embrace pain completely transforms the experience and interestingly I think pain looses some if its power when your in this head-space.

For me at least, it's an interesting topic and it's great to hear your thoughts.

Re: Make Your Own Chiishii

GrasshopperK — Wed, 19 May 2010 18:03:47 -0000

Hi Chris,

Thanks for that recommendation. I'll definitely check it out.

Re: Martial Arts Addiction

GrasshopperK — Fri, 14 May 2010 07:38:43 -0000

Hi Mathieu,

Martial arts certainly has a lot to offer and we all get different things out of training. It sometimes surprises me that with all the benefits of training, martial arts aren't something that are taught in many schools in the West. It's a common part of the curriculum in Japan but I think I a lot of schools miss out here.

Re: What's to Gain from Pain?

GrasshopperK — Fri, 14 May 2010 07:37:24 -0000

Hi Noah,

We would do a lot of body conditioning in the honbu dojo but that never worried me as much as the potential for injury in sparring (particularly strikes to the face, head, knees, joints etc). Even when you're not trying to injur your opponents, when sparring gets heated, injuries happen.

That said, conditioning isn't without its problems. Brent (one of the honbu dojo students) broke his forearm once doing conditioning during a demonstration. To his credit, he didn't even stop but it's clearly an example of where a high pain threshold isn't necessarily a good thing.

I think you're point about 'mental pain' is a good one though. I'm actually conducting research at the moment into 'fear of failure' and its an area where a lot of people struggle. Unfortunately, even some of the best martial artists I know can have a hard time with expectations and performance anxiety but maybe that'd be a good topic for another post...

Re: What's to Gain from Pain?

GrasshopperK — Fri, 14 May 2010 07:33:07 -0000

Hi Steve,

Thanks a lot for those comments. I know you do a lot of work with reality based self defense in systema and I was really interested in hearing your views on this topic.

I'm not sure if it was on your blog where I first came across the idea of knife drills using wooden knife handles and blunt nails heads (which wouldn't cut but could result in scratching etc). I think embracing a little pain in this way could be really beneficial for self defense training but it's also good to hear that it's not taken to excess and that students are actually taught how to 'read' pain signals from others. Knowing how far to push your partners in training is clearly important and something that's often not taught to students.

Re: Fear the Blade! Defense Against Knife Attack

GrasshopperK — Mon, 10 May 2010 21:22:46 -0000

Great post. I think poor knife training can actually be more dangerous than no training if it 'de-sensitizes' people to knives or instills false and unrealistic confidence in dealing with them. Built in reflexes, fear etc are things we should be trying to work with and incorporate into training and you've raised a lot of interesting points worth thinking about.

Re: What's to Gain from Pain?

GrasshopperK — Mon, 10 May 2010 19:31:09 -0000

Hi John,

Great points. I agree about "good" pain and "bad" pain and things like conditioning, muscle aches, tiredness and fatigue are clear no brainers - for the most part they're good for you. But, I still struggle telling some kinds of pain apart - as mentioned above.

I think you made an excellent point about not taking it personally and I think this is all part of training too. When you experience enough pain in the dojo you tend to stop getting upset by it as it just becomes a part of training. At times it could even be a compliment - a sign that demonstrates you're at a level where you're instructors and seniors believe you can take it.

Interestingly though, in the context of self defense, pain is very personal and I suppose that learning not to let that get in the way is an important part of training too.

Re: What's to Gain from Pain?

GrasshopperK — Mon, 10 May 2010 19:29:46 -0000

Hi Eugene,

Sounds like you're doing a better job than I at 'speaking pains language'. I still struggle knowing what pain is going to result in injury when it comes to hard sparring, joint locks and the like. On some occasions I'll be sure that I've gotten an injury only to find I'm 100% in the morning, while at other times something which started out as a niggling little thing in sparring ends up becoming a long term injury that disrupts training for weeks or months at a time.

Perhaps some people are better than others at telling the difference between the two. And I think at the end of the day a lot rides on the instructors and senior grades to know exactly how to inflict pain without causing injury - something that's again complicated by different body types, flexibility levels, pain thresholds etc.

Re: What's to Gain from Pain?

GrasshopperK — Mon, 10 May 2010 19:25:40 -0000

R. Simpson,

CIPA is a terrible condition but I also have enormous sympathy for people with neuralgia. Chronic pain conditions are truly awful and only made worse by the fact that they're so poorly understood by others who can't "see" anything wrong. It's the perfect example of situations where pain really doesn't make a lot of sense.

In any case I have enormous respect for people like yourself who continue to live life to the full and refuse to let it get in the way of training etc. I think it puts those little niggling injuries in perspective for the rest of us and serves as a reminder that a little pain doesn't have to get in the way of training.

Thank you for sharing your experiences.

Re: Moments to Strike: How Does Your Style Say It?

GrasshopperK — Mon, 03 May 2010 19:28:00 -0000

Interesting post Matt. I've always believed that squabbling over different martial arts styles is pointless for this very reason.

As for the before, during and after of striking, I've also heard HIgaonna Sensei talk of these three different speeds - I was also going to write a similar post on the topic but you've beaten me to it again ;)

In the honbu dojo we would practice with all three when doing bunkai work. I wonder also if it isn't an issue of a students degree of training and experience within a style? Beginners are typically taught to block and then retaliate and to later at the same time. But, it takes a truly experienced martial artists to sense an attack and strike before your opponent has the opportunity to do so.

Re: Martial Arts Addiction

GrasshopperK — Mon, 03 May 2010 19:05:42 -0000

Hi Serpentstaff,

Thanks for your comment. I think you've hit on an important point when you mentioned 'satisfaction and fulfillment'.

There might be some situations where people train compulsively from a place of constant anxiety - similar to exercise-based anorexia or bigorexia (as in the case of unhealthy gym addiction). In those situations, I think addiction is a problem .

But, for the most part people who practice martial arts seem to do so for the love of it. And, as long as it's bringing them satisfaction and fulfillment how can it be bad? If anything, martial arts has so much to offer, I think it could make an interesting addition to the psychiatrist's treatment repertoire.

Re: Martial Arts Addiction

GrasshopperK — Mon, 03 May 2010 18:41:55 -0000

We all need excuses for junk food :)

Re: Dojo Diary and the 10,000 Hour Rule

GrasshopperK — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 03:21:21 -0000

Wim,

That's a great little story. Skill is clearly something we should all aspire to but one of the things I love about martial arts is way in which 'spirit' and 'character' can level the playing field.

Some students may have impressive natural talent and ability but it's typically the students that demonstrate perseverant effort, humility and patience that have the most potential. After all, staying motivated and training regularly is all the harder when you have very little skill.

Re: Dojo Diary and the 10,000 Hour Rule

GrasshopperK — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 03:11:04 -0000

Mal,

I like the parallel to the mountain-top boxes :)

Interestingly, there's a similar notebook outside the zendo at Kozenji temple. The temple sits on top of a mountain not far from Shuri castle and all the monks and zen students record their names before zazen each morning. The calligraphy's quite quite beautiful and my name in katakana never seemed to sit quite right.

It's certainly an interesting tradition and clearly not something limited to the martial arts.

Re: Dojo Diary and the 10,000 Hour Rule

GrasshopperK — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 03:02:31 -0000

Good points. I agree that 'perfect practice' needs to strike a balance between personal training, research and training with others. A good teacher can certainly accelerate a student's progress. Though 'smart' focused training is also needed to make use of a good teacher :)

Re: Dojo Diary and the 10,000 Hour Rule

GrasshopperK — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 02:56:00 -0000

Hey Matt,

I really liked your post on the same topic. Wish I'd come across it earlier! Funny how you can think you've come up with an original post only to find it published elsewhere almost a year ago. Though with the wealth of material you've published over the years I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

I'd be fascinated in hearing more about the cross-cultural maths study you mentioned in your post – it's an area of research I'm currently interested in. Do you have any more details?

Cheers,

Re: Thinking By Year, Training By Day

GrasshopperK — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 02:53:12 -0000

Great post! I especially love the idea of thinking in years.

I think patience is difficult (especially for Westerners). We so frequently want to know the how and why of things straight away. In reality, your body and mind really only grasp things when the time's right and that can (and often does) take years of 'training by day'.

You're also not wrong about 'Okinawa time' - everything seems to move more slowly over there. In the West, time is just another commodity to be bought, lost and spent. Slowing down is just one more thing I think we can learn from the Okinawans, especially in the fast paced society we're currently living in.

Re: 10,000 Hours to Mastery…For Martial Artists

GrasshopperK — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 02:36:02 -0000

Great Post Matt,

Wish I'd come across this one earlier! Funny how you can think you've come up with an original post only to find it published almost a year ago. Though with the wealth of material you've published over the years I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

I'd be fascinated in hearing more about the cross-cultural maths study you mentioned in your post – it's an area of research I'm currently interested in. Do you have any more details?

Cheers,

Re: Dojo Diary and the 10,000 Hour Rule

GrasshopperK — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 02:28:01 -0000

Thanx Brian!

Re: Make Your Own Chiishii

GrasshopperK — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:18:51 -0000

No problem. I wanted to put together a post with all the chiishi techniques in little animated gif. files but it ended up being to big. I talk a little bit about it in my last post but there's a great catalogue of pics on Sensei Helmut's website. If you click on the different hojo undo under the hojo undo gallery you can look at the basic techniques for most of the traditional training tools. It also comes with the Japanese which is great too.

Hope that helps and happy training.

Re: Make Your Own Chiishii

GrasshopperK — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:59:40 -0000

Hi Jvercellino,

It's personal preference but typically chiishi range from about 2-5kg. For me, 3.5kg was a pretty good weight. It's important not to make them too heavy to avoid injury and to do all the exercises technically well. If you're unsure what's right for you, I'd err on the side of lighter - more reps of a lighter chiishi can give you just as good a work out.

Re: Make Your Own Chiishii

GrasshopperK — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:27:43 -0000

That's an interesting perspective Salamai, though I'd be careful making judgments of other styles (especially as an 'outsider'). While the methods can differ, at the highest levels there are often more similarities than one might think.

Higaonna sensei I know has spent much time in China researching Goju's origins and is well respected among the Shaolin masters there. As for Chojun Miyagi, were he laughing today, I suspect it would be directed at Western students who think they know better than the Masters that have dedicated their lives to the preservation of traidional martial arts.

Re: Sensei’s Secret Techniqe

GrasshopperK — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:14:17 -0000

Hi Steven,

Perhaps you're right - this is only a story I heard from a friend. But even in my short time knowing Sensei, I wouldn't have put it past him. Either way, I think these stories (true or false) can serve a purpose beyond simply 'glorifying the master'. I was certainly inspired to devote more attention to basics when I first heard this tale.

Re: Speedy Senses

GrasshopperK — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:11:58 -0000

Hey guys,

I wouldn't feel bad. Most people miss him the first time. We were actually shown the clip as part of a psychology unit on visual perception and cognition. It's amazing how much we can miss when our attention's elsewhere. But it does make you think – if we can miss a moonwalking bear, what are our chances of spotting a suspicious person who actively trying to blend in? Does have some serious implications for self defense...