Welcome to new students Richard, Lucas, Marc, Kensei (Robert), Ben, Tarkan and Sarah! Thank you to all the children who attended the Child Safety lecture this month, which was run by three police officers and the judo club. It was a great way to help students relate their martial arts training to real life situations, such as bullying, kidnap and cyber-crimes.

2 year anniversary　

This month we will celebrate the second anniversary of Sobukan, and October marks one year since we moved to our current dojo in Clarence Gardens. To celebrate, let’s gather on Saturday 5^th October around 1pm at Himeji Gardens (near the corner of Hutt St on South Tce in the city) for a relaxing picnic and a chat and a bit of light training in the Japanese gardens. This will give us plenty of time between Saturday Jujutsu to collect our families and get ready.　There will be awards for junior students who have put in extraordinary effort.

Sobukan rash tops

Coinciding with our anniversary, we have just received a delivery of Sobukan rash tops! Sizes are limited (big sizes are plentiful!), but available at the heavily subsidised price of $30. These are a trial, and if they go well we will look into ordering short sleeved rash tops, t-shirts and hoodies. Please order soon to avoid missing out on your size.

Kudo equipment

This month I will be joining as a member of Kudo and ordering two sets of Kudo headgear. This will allow interested parties to prepare for Kudo competition next year. Kudo was established in 1981 by Takashi Azuma, who was an All-Japan Kyokushinkai Full Contact Karate champion and Judo 3^rd dan black belt. He established Kudo as he felt that the rules of Kyokushinkai, which does not allow throws and grappling, head punches, elbows and headbutts, was too limiting. Kudo headgear allows for a realistic and safe form of MMA sparring that is more closely aligned with self-defence than UFC-style MMA. I believe that this form of kumite will perfectly complement our Koryu Uchinadi Kenpo Jutsu kata and drills and help combine our striking, throws and grappling.
Web:        http://www.ku-do.com/eng/index.html
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqxwBNrum5c

Hanshi seminar 16/17 November　                

The world’s most foremost Karate researcher and historian, and the head of IRKRS and Koryu Uchinadi Kenpo Jutsu, Hanshi Patrick McCarthy will be visiting SA! Shawn Donaldson (Denshinkan) and Sobukan will host Hanshi McCarthy for the weekend of training. Hanshi is widely recognised as the world’s leading expert in kata and related practices. This is a rare chance to train with the best, and I hope that everyone will take advantage of this opportunity to take your martial arts to the next level. More information to follow soon. http://www.koryu-uchinadi.com/index1.html

Grading　

We will have the next grading sometime in the not-too-distant future, probably in October or November. Please take control of your learning and ensure you enquire about any part of your syllabus that you are not confident with.

Demonstration – OzAsia Moon Lantern Festival 19 September　

We have been invited to demonstrate Japanese martial arts at the OzAsia Moon Lantern Festival. This time I would love to do something special. This is a wonderful opportunity to develop and demonstrate your abilities to large groups of people and help promote both Japanese martial arts and your dojo. Demonstrations are fun events and a great chance to socialise with your dojo mates outside of regular training. Please RSVP ASAP to let me know if you will be able to assist in the demonstration. The OzAsia Moon Lantern Festival will be held on Thursday, 19th September 2013 at 3:40pm (yes, that’s right) in Elder Park. http://www.ozasiafestival.com.au/

Upcoming competitions　

AMAA (Karate)
The next AMAA competition is scheduled for 20 October, and includes events such as kata, complete sparring (striking to body, throws and grappling), triple event (one round each of striking to body, throws and grappling), and contact and non-contact sparring. This is now just around the corner! Please let me know if you are interested in competing in the future. http://australianmartialartsassociation.com/

Kotowaza　諺

七転八起 Nana korobi ya oki.
One of my favourite Japanese expressions (kotowaza) is ‘nana korobi ya oki’. Literally this means ‘seven falls, eight rises’, and encourages the subject to try again after each failure. No matter how many times you fail, you only need to succeed one. Keep going!

Technical lesson　

So where to start for the first technical lesson in the monthly newsletters? At the beginning, of course!

構え (kamae) refers to a ready position, a fighting stance, often known as a ‘fence’ or ‘guard’. There are many versions of kamae, with each variation designed to exploit your strengths, while mitigating those of the opponent or opponents. The kamae can be conveniently broken down into four parts: the legs, body, arms and head.

Legs: Stand up. Talk a walk around the room. Each of your steps should be roughly the same length and your feet will remain in line with your hips. This is the most natural stance for you to fight from. Each step should be roughly one hips width wide and about the same length, maybe slightly longer. Bend your knees a little and place your weight on your toes, letting your heels float off the ground. Your rear foot should feel springy, preparing to pounce or absorb impact at any moment.

Body: If fighting a single opponent in a combat sport, it is recommended to lean significantly forward. However, in a street confrontation, it is necessary to be prepared for surprise attacks from any angle. Stand straight and angle your body slightly, keeping your abdominal muscles taut and feeling power in your lower back. The core is the source of your power, and is the only part of your body that should feel slightly tense. Your weight should be very marginally forward, as it is easier to move both forward and backward quickly from this position. The Japanese say ‘気持ちだけ前へ’, which means to just feel or imagine that your weight is forward without deliberately shifting your weight.

Arms: Raise your hands until your thumbs can touch a couple of inches in front of your chin to protect your face. Your hand position will change depending on the height difference between your attacker and yourself, and your preferred attacking weapons. Open your hands with your palms outwards. This looks passive, rather than aggressive and is equally applicable during the negotiation and physical defence phases of the self-defence stages. Open hands are more dexterous to catch incoming attacks and more flexible in terms of attacking options.

Your elbows must be in front of your floating ribs, not out to the side. This is essential for a number of reasons:

1. Protection for the body
2. Maximise kinetic energy transfer from the hips
3. Absorb incoming wrestling attacks
4. Better alignment of the fist when punching (wide elbows = pinkie injuries!)
5. Minimised telegraphing of hand attacks.

Head: Lower your chin slightly to protect your jaw and throat. Look at your opponent’s throat, but keep your vision soft. Peripheral vision facilitates faster reactions, which is part of the survival mechanism of the animal world. Direct vision is perfect for predators, when completely focussed on attack without concern for protecting one’s self. Keep your eyes unfocussed, but be ready to hone in on the target when the opportunity arises.

Logo
I have been asked to arrange some club merchandise. Nick and I have ordered some Sobukan rash tops (which should arrive soon). I am also looking into hood tops, t-shirts and drink bottles, but would like to develop a better logo first. Our current logo is listed below, but I would like to change the kanji characters to a vertical format and also include the web address in blue. I would like the yin yang to be smaller, possibly replacing the ‘o’ in Sobukan. If anyone has any ideas or skills for developing a logo, please let me know!

Grading – Saturday 13 July
Only two weeks until the grading on Saturday 13 July! This will be a smaller grading to allow students who were unable to attend the April grading to catch up. Good luck with your preparation!

Demonstrations
We have been invited to demonstrate Japanese martial arts at the following important cultural events: the Japanese Cultural Day and at the OzAsia Moon Lantern Festival.

These are wonderful opportunities to develop and demonstrate your abilities to large groups of people and help promote both Japanese martial arts and your dojo. They are fun events and a great chance to socialise with your dojo mates outside of regular training. Please RSVP ASAP to let me know if you will be able to assist in the demonstrations. I hope to have strong contingents of all ages and belt levels from both Sobukan and the Japanese Community School Karate club (日本語補習校空手部).

Japanese Cultural Day – 6th July
We have been invited to demonstrate at the Burnside Library at the Japanese Cultural Day at noon on Saturday 6th July.
The library is on the corner of Greenhill and Portrush roads Tusmore. We will have our normal lesson on Saturday morning at 10am, but finish a little early and head to the library together. Could demonstrators please ensure that you are ready to start at 11:45am.
Our demonstration will be split into two sections:
 Kids from the Japanese Community School Karate Club – approximately 10 minutes （日本語補習校空手部の子供達）
 Hakko-ryu Jujutsu – approximately 20 minutes.

OzAsia Moon Lantern Festival – 19th September
The OzAsia Moon Lantern Festival will be held on Thursday, 19th September 2013 in the afternoon and evening in Elder Park. http://www.ozasiafestival.com.au/

Upcoming competitions
AMAA (Karate)
The next AMAA competition is scheduled for 20 October, and includes events such as kata, complete sparring (striking to body, throws and grappling), triple event (one round each of striking to body, throws and grappling), and contact and non-contact sparring. Please let me know if you are interested in competing in the future.
http://australianmartialartsassociation.com/

Welcome
I take pleasure in welcoming new students Daniel J, Jake N, Dylan & Elisia J and Jhett M to the Sobukan family. As an incentive to introduce your friends and family, Sobukan has family discounts available, and you get one month free training for every new member you introduce.

I have been delighted by the recent increased interest in Saturday traditional Jujutsu classes. We practice jujutsu as learned at the home dojo of Hakkoryu Jujutsu in Japan. This sophisticated martial art combines a clear philosophy of 挑まず、逆らわず、傷つけず- ‘do not challenge, do not resist, do not injure’ with incredibly effective martial art techniques and principles that complement your abilities in our other martial arts. These sessions are the ‘yin’ to the harder ‘yang’ classes during the week. They are a wonderful opportunity to slow down and focus on the finer details. These classes are only open to adults, and people with disabilities are especially welcome.

Magazine articles

Thank you to Geoff Tynan and Nate Blardony for assisting with a technical workshop that was featured in the recent Blitz martial arts magazine’s special collector’s edition of Instructors’ Fighting Techniques. It was an honour to be included amongst Australia’s elite martial artists. Also thank you to Dinah sensei and Will Cernev who were our photographers. Sobukan has also had articles and mentions in regular editions of Blitz magazine, including a recent feature article on teaching martial arts.

Grading
Congratulations to all those who recently passed their grading tests! We have a few people who are due for a grading but could not make it on the day, and hope to be able to schedule a time in late May for those people. The next formal grading will likely be Saturday 13 July, and I look forward to seeing a group of students promoted to be Sobukan’s first senior green belts! Green belt is the first intermediate grade and quite a milestone as it is roughly halfway to black belt.

New belts
Junior yellow Sei Gillies, Tyzak & Jyah Purvis, Marko & Christopher Tsiavlis, Arian & Naysan Amrein, Paul Henshaw, James Tate
Jnr yellow with stripe Jayrell Kudzius, Luke and Joel Austin
Junior Orange Max Wright, Dylan Lake, Ethan & Josh Gifford
Senior Yellow Jo Purvis, Kynan Schroeder, Daniel Headland, Sean Timms
Senior Orange Steven Pace, Ollie Manna

Demonstrations
We have been invited to demonstrate Japanese martial arts at three important cultural events: the Kodomo no Hi Japanese festival, Japanese Cultural Day and at the OzAsia Moon Lantern Festival.

These are wonderful opportunities to develop and demonstrate your abilities to large groups of people and help promote both Japanese martial arts and your dojo. They are fun events and a great chance to socialise with your dojo mates outside of regular training. Please RSVP ASAP to let me know if you will be able to assist in the demonstrations. I hope to have strong contingents of all ages and belt levels from both Sobukan and the Japanese Community School Karate club (日本語補習校空手部).

Kodomo no Hi Festival – 5th May
The Kodomo no Hi Japanese Festival will be held on Sunday, 5th May 2013 at Cowandilla Primary School. It is the largest volunteer run Japanese festival in Australia.
http://jafa.asn.au/index.php/upcoming-events/42-upcomingevents/148-kodomo-no-hi-japan-festival

Japanese Cultural Day – 6th July
We have been invited to demonstrate jujutsu at the Burnside Library at the Japanese Cultural Day on Saturday 6th July. More information will follow.

OzAsia Moon Lantern Festival – 19th September
The OzAsia Moon Lantern Festival will be held on Thursday, 19th September 2013 in the afternoon and evening in Elder Park.
http://www.ozasiafestival.com.au/

Competition
Some team members have shown an interest in competing on Sunday, 19th May. The AMAA competition has a few events which our students may be interested in competing in, including:
 Complete sparring, – one 5 minute round with rules allowing body striking (not to head), throwing and grappling
 Triple event – 3 x 1.5 minute rounds, one round of striking, one round of throwing and one round of grappling
 Kata
 Children may also be interested in non-contact options, but we would need to train specifically for this, as it falls outside our normal training methods.
Please review the following webpage and advise me ASAP if you are interested in competing. There is absolutely no obligation to compete for students uninterested.
http://www.australianmartialartsassociation.com/Tournament%20Entry.htm

Resources
Students often ask me about where they can find reference information to assist their learning. Much of our coloured belt syllabus is sourced from Koryu Uchinadi Kenpo Jutsu and Judo and various forms of jujutsu including BJJ. Junior students also learn Shito-ryu Heian kata. Apart from sensei Youtube, I recommend the following sources of information:

Karate
Book: Bubishi (the classic manual of combat), translated by Patrick McCarthy.
DVDs 1 (Two person drills) 9 (Nyumon), and 15 (Ukewaza) for beginners, and DVDs 11, 12, 13, 14 and 16 for advanced students.
All can be purchased via: http://www.koryu-uchinadi.com/index1.html

Judo
Book: Kodokan Judo, by Jigoro Kano.
Iphone app: Judo Gokyo (Hiroshi Katanishi)
Princeton university Judo website: http://princetonjudo.org/princetonjudo/gokyu/

Grappling
Book: Jiu-jitsu University, by Saulo Riberio.
Book: Mastering Jujutsu, by Renzo Gracie.
Iphone app: Grapplearts.com series with Stephen Kesting.
Lockflow website: http://www.lockflow.com/

Due to a grading on Saturday 20th April, there will be no jujutsu class. I apologise for the inconvenience for anyone who wished to attend jujutsu but not grade.

On the day, please wear your gi, and pay the $25 charge before we start at 10am sharp. I will be there by 9:30am at the latest. Juniors should be finished within an hour or so, seniors should finish around 1pm, if all goes to plan. We may have a pizza and a drink afterwards for those still around.

Please note that you will not know the grading result on the day. I will score each student against the criteria, calculate the scores at a later time and present grades to those successful at the next training session on Monday.

There is an 80% pass mark. This means that you need to complete 100% of the syllabus to 80% of my expectations, or alternatively, you may forget up to 20% of the syllabus, but must know the rest to 100% of my expectations!

Each grade gets harder, and you need to demonstrate all the syllabus up until the belt you test or. For example, if grading to green belt, you must demonstrate the yellow and orange belt syllabus better than those grades. Everyone removes their belt at the grading and it is possible to go up or down!

I often get asked ‘am I ready?’.

The last thing I would do is discourage a student from a challenge. I think the worst message I could give a student is not to try because they may fail. Students apply the lessons they learn in the dojo: achieving goals, challenges, successes and failures – the last of which I simply call ‘learning’. Having said that, I make sure that the kids get something out of the grading. If they do not ‘pass’, they get to ‘finish’ the grading when they have demonstrated that they know the criteria well enough. This is a great learning opportunity.

GOOD LUCK!!

I always have mixed feelings when I open my favourite martial arts magazine to find it plastered with my face. Delight that Sobukan is featured, but then guilt that my ugly mug has defaced the mag. You may find myself (Chris Gillies), assisted by attackers Geoff Tynan and Nate Blardony on page 88-89 of the latest special collector’s edition of Blitz, Instructors’ Fighting Techniques. Thank you gentlemen for being so forthcoming in volunteering to attack me.

We also have mentions in this month’s regular edition of Blitz, in the Martial Art career sections and a blurb about the recent MMA fights in SA. Also look for Shawn Donaldson’s (Denshinkan) most recent installment in his series of articles, this one entitled ‘3 Levels of Control’.

Can you believe summer is over?! It’s a little sad, really, but on the positive side, it means that we are heading into some cooler weather, ideal for training!

Welcome to Ray, Annie, Daniel, James, Nathan and Kate, the Purvis family, Chal, and Will. I hope you enjoy many years of happy, healthy and safe learning and development at Sobukan. The journey to black belt is long, but you have taken the most important step – the first one. I also look forward to the return of a couple of students who have taken extended breaks – it will be like welcoming a family member home.

I am planning to hold a grading on a Saturday during the next school holidays, sometime in April. Please check your grading syllabus and start charting your progress – you have about 6 weeks! In particular, I predict we will have some new junior yellow and orange belts soon!

I am also considering holding a couple of mini-competitions for Sobukan (and maybe Denshinkan) students. Competitions are a great way to motivate students to train hard and to reach the next level in their development. The competitions would include such events as:

Light contact kumite (kids)
Contact kumite (adults)
Judo
Grappling
Boxing
Kickboxing
MMA
Kata

The competitions would have to be held on a Saturday in school holidays. If you are keen, please let me know.

We have been invited to again demonstrate Japanese martial arts on Sunday 5th May at the Kodomo no hi festival – South Australia’s best and biggest Japanese event. It would be great to have a large cross-section on the day energetically demonstrating tegumi, kata and other karate and jujutsu drills. Hopefully quite a few of our Japanese community school students will be able to attend.

Thank you to everyone who advises me when they need to take extended breaks. I do worry when I don’t see you for a few lessons, so appreciate it when you keep me in the loop. I also really appreciate it when students advise me when they don’t continue training, as this is the best opportunity to receive feedback that can help me to continue to improve Sobukan.

Happy New Year, and I hope you all have been enjoying your Australia Day long weekend – I know I have! As per usual, there is training tonight. It is rare for Sobukan to close for public holidays, this usually only happens at Christmas time. I will make a decision about Easter soon.

Thank you very much to Umehara san for arranging calligraphy sessions for us to celebrate the first training of 2013. My 書初め (kakizome- first writing of the year, to set a theme for the following twelve months) for 2013 was 養う (yashinau). Yashinau means to nuture, to cultivate or to develop, and symbolises my desire to cultivate Sobukan, and it’s students development over the coming year(s). It also reflects my family goals.

Many other Sobukan members, both young and not-so-young, also committed to a theme or goal for this year, and took the first step towards committing to that goal by expressing it verbally to the class and by writing it in Japanese as a reminder.

On the topic of holidays, the Saturday karate-bu classes at the Japanese Community School resumed this weekend, right in time for Australia Day. However, due to the school requiring the hall this coming Saturday 2 February, we will be unable to hold our regular class. Sobukan students may not know that we also run a class at the Japanese school at Rose Park Primary School. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, I believe our karate-bu classes to the only martial art classes in Australia taught to entirely Japanese students, and entirely in the Japanese language.

日本語補習校の空手部クラスが１月２６日から再開しました。この空手部クラスは、恐らくオーストラリアで唯一の、日本人に日本語のみで教えている総武館が提供するクラスです。次週２月２日は学校の都合で休みとなっておりますので、ご了承ください。

I have also commenced teaching traditional Jujutsu seminars at Komei Juku – a traditional sword school based in Moana. Whenever we have any visiting students, please make sure they feel very comfortable. If anyone is interesting in supplementing their learning with Iaijutsu (sword drawing) techniques, please let me know and I will arrange an introduction.

Sorry for any recent failure to return emails – we have been without phone and internet at home for a while, and it is just back up. I should be more on top of things now.

Our last training session of the year will be on Saturday 22^nd December for adults, and Wednesday 19^th December for juniors. On Saturday 22^nd December, let’s meet at Himeji Gardens (South Tce, city) at midday for a picnic. Please wear or bring your gi, and bring your own picnic rug, food and drinks. We will have a short training session and enjoy the tranquillity of the beautiful Japanese gardens.

Himeji Gardens

Our first day back is on Wednesday 2^nd January, and we will likely have a ‘kagami biraki’ ceremony on Saturday 5^th January. More information to follow. Please keep safe over the Christmas holidays, don’t drink and drive and watch out for those who may be.

Grading – Saturday 15^th December 10am.
We have many students (children and adults) who are ready to test for their new belts. Please ensure you bring your grading passport (attached) and the $25 grading fee. If unsure whether you or your child is ready, please come early and see me before class. We have two weeks to prepare, so classes will focus on grading material for the next few lessons.

Sorry for any inconvenience, but there is no jujutsu/no gi grappling class this Saturday or next for the following reasons:
Nov 24 – Renshi Jason Griffiths seminar at 2pm. We will learn some great standing and ground submission drills.
Dec 1 – My Japanese karate-bu kids will give a demonstration at the Japanese Community School Bunkasai (cultural festival).
Also don’t forget the grading on Dec 15!! Good luck with your preparation – starting with the grading this weekend!