A real end to an era

Well, I'm sitting here in an Internet cafe in Shibuya, a few days after the SKIF World Championships. As I expected, I did not get out of the eliminations in kata. I lost my first round in the kohaku competition, doing Empi against a German competitor. I missed a kiai.

Now, just as I said in 1992 and in 2000, I will not enter any more karate competitions. Since about maybe a month or two ago, I seldom trained to prepare for this world championships. It is totally unlike me to not be focused on a task at hand. Moreover, even during the tournament, after I had been eliminated, I felt very little of my accustomed need to be out there going against the best. I wasn't disappointed with the result. I didnt have any ambition to go out there again and show what I'm really made of.

This time is unlike the previous two "retirements." Following my exit from competition before, I had this nagging feeling in the back of my head that my time really hadn't come. I still felt as if there was a lot of fight left in me. But now, I am absolutely positive that I am no longer interested in competing in karate. It's the end of an era.

The good news is that the United States now has a world kata champion: Clay Morton.

He did a great job.

Fuckin' punks

Well, I finally had a chance to see what I was made of. Last night, after training in various martial arts for more than 25 years, I had to use what I've learned in various dojo to defend myself in a self-defense situation.

Around 9:15pm, while waiting to cross the street at a busy intersection near San Jose State University, three to four punks approached me. From their dress and mannerisms, I'd say they were gangbangers, all about 17-19 years old.

One asked me for a dollar.

When I told him that I didn't have a dollar to spare, he said: "But I'm hungry, so give me a dollar."

"Sorry, I can't help you."

It was then that I felt a strange sensation on my left cheek. It took me one or two seconds to realize it, but the son of a bitch sucker punched me! The delayed reaction could be explained, I think, because, well, in all honesty, compared to what I'm used to, it wasn't a hard enough hit for me to realize that it was aggressive. But once it registered, without thinking, I popped him in the jaw with a straight right.

I'm not sure if it was because I was unfocused or because he was on drugs, but my punch barely seemed to faze him for a second or two. Initially it was almost as if he was trying to think what happened to him, because I'm not so sure he even saw the punch coming. But when he recovered from his shock, he just started glaring at me.

His buddies decided to get in on the action. As far as I can remember, there were two other guys and a girl. The two other guys started taking off their jackets and closing in on me. As they started taking off their jackets, I realized they werent reaching in their pockets for anything. I gambled that this was an indication they had no weapons, so I prepared mentally for a fight with all of them.

When I first tried to assume a fighting posture, I felt no grip from my shoes. I was wearing leather-soled dress shoes, so immediately I was uncomfortable about throwing solid, grounded punches ... much less any kind of kick. So I thought quickly that if this came down to a fight, I'd probably be better off on the ground.

There was nobody present at the corner of the intersection where the altercation began. I thought that since I was outnumbered the best thing I could do is try to get across the street so that if we fought, the customers at a pizza joint and an ice cream parlor could come to my rescue if I needed it. So as the guys all approached me, I started backing up slowly to where the other people were.

One of the guys, the closest one to me, started ordering the others to encircle me.

I'm not sure if they ever got a chance to because the closest guy launched an attack immediately. He really wound up for a wild right. I saw it from a mile away and shot for both of his legs. When I got them, I picked the fucker up and lifted him high in the air then body slammed the bastard into the pavement.

I hoped the impact would stun him enough to take the fight out of him, but I wasn't that lucky. As soon as we both hit the ground, he started to struggle, and I managed to get him in a side mount. True to what I expected, I started feeling various impacts on my back side. I couldn't see it, but the other guys were punching and kicking my back. I buried my face in my grounded opponent's chest as he tried punching me from the bottom. None of their hits at that time were effectual.

I think we may have been prone for 5 or 10 seconds when I realized the guy I was wrestling with must've had some kind of grappling experience. He was doing a pretty good job of trying to get out of my pin, and at one point even managed to temporarily escape. But I saw his maneuver in time and countered so that I was able to readjust myself into an even more advantageous position: It was still a side mount, but I was a little higher up on his torso -- which means it was easier for me to hit his head. When I got a little bit of space between him and me, I lifted his head off the ground then slammed it back onto the concrete ... the whole time telling him calmly: "You're fucking with the wrong guy." I heard a strange sound when his skull hit ... it kind of sounded like "doink."

That's when I felt one of those other fuckers kick me in my jaw. That was the only hit I really felt during the whole altercation.

Anyway, the guy on the ground paid for it again. Now he was on the defensive: no longer trying to escape or punch me, but trying to keep me from hitting him by pulling my face closer to his chest. I slipped my left forearm on his neck and used his neck to push off a few inches, then laid into his jaw with a right elbow. I have vague recollections of doing it again, but the memory isn't that clear.

It was around that time that I felt someone grab me from behind saying: "That's enough! Let go! Let go!"

I didn't know if this person was his friend or a bystander, so I calmly asked as I continued to try to pound the guy under me: "Who the fuck are you? You with them? These gys jumped me. Whothe fuck are you?"

I never got a response. But whoever had me was way too strong, and he yanked me completely off the guy ... just as that guy's buddy pulled him out from under me.

The punks walked away. And the guy who grabbed me, a big black guy who just happened to be driving by, convinced me to leave them alone ... and get some ice cream with him.

Today, I'm just thankful none of these bozos had a knife or a gun. I know I'm very lucky to be alive. But as I was licking down my banana/caramel ice cream, I couldn't help but to wish my "rescuer" came 30 seconds later. I was just starting to get warmed up.

Video: Isshujiai by Kendoeva

Damn, I wish I was there. :(

Looks to be a group of naginata and kendo students doing isshujiai at a japanese university.

Back to basics

It seems that with Mitchell off training to catch bad guys, I'm the only one showing up for training on Fridays these days.

In some ways bad, because I no longer have a training partner with whom to "play" around. In some ways it's good because, well, I get to work on my own stuff.

I asked sensei Friday if she'd allow me to hit the dummy for a while. Told her I watched my vids and came to the conclusion that my combinations seemed to be working well (im creating open targets and going for them), but I didn't score as often as I wished because I was slightly off target ... especially when I shot to the men. She was totally for it, and suggested I try to hit the dummy 100 times a night with the same technique.

If she has the time to give me, I have the time to spare!

So during the last class, I did nothing but shomen uchi against the dummy, trying to get good hits. Much to work on. Much to work on, indeed.

Are we having fun yet? (XPost)

(This article was originally posted to my tango baka blog, but I think the message applies to this blog, as well, so I'm cross-posting here.)

Is it wrong to try to get skilled at tango? Apparently, for some people it is. I was on a train coming home from a dance class in San Francisco when I ran into a woman whom I hadn't seen in a while. I don't remember her name now, so let's just call her Ms. Train. Anyway, she recognized me from a tango class we had both taken months earlier. Now, seated next to one another, we strike up a conversation.

Because of scheduling conflicts, Ms. Train says, she stopped going to the dance hall in Sunnyvale where we met. But, she continues, she started taking classes at another place on a different night.

She asks if I'm still dancing. This is about four or five months after I started -- well into my tango addiction. It is also around the same time I start to understand the whole concept of leading, so I'm no longer stepping on my partners' toes during each and every dance.

I'm sure visibly happy when I tell her that not only am I still taking lessons, but I'm getting increasingly confident I'm going to be pretty good at leading. Given my passion for the dance, and given my history of immersing myself in whatever I've set my heart to, I say, there's no way I'm not going to be pretty good at this.

Sagelike, she says, "The point of dancing isn't to get good, Martin. The point is about having fun."

The first thought that comes to mind is something like "Did you learn that line in grade school?" Somehow, she got it in her head that engaging in a drive to improve oneself and having fun are two mutually exclusive things. Her attitude isn't unique: I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say those words -- if not to me, then to someone within earshot.

And, honestly? The attitude confuses me.

Now, I understand there are times when people in some recreational activities get so obsessed with attaining an objective -- a trophy, prize money, fame -- that they lose sight of the enjoyment they derived from the activity when they got into it in the first place; their problem, however, is that they're beset by the same false logic as Ms. Train: They think that enjoying oneself and getting better at something are mutually exclusive.

"What if I like training?" I ask her. "And what if I have more fun doing an activity as I get better at it?"

I explain that the better I become, the more varied steps I can do. And even if I don't learn anything fancy, stepping on my partner's toes isn't my idea of having a good time. The more skilled I get the less I step on partners' toes.

"I don't mind if someone steps on my toes," she replies. "And I would expect him not to mind, either, if I stepped on his. We're there to have fun."

"So you're telling me I shouldn't try to improve?"

"You should just have fun," she says.

After a few moments, I tell her that I find a lackadaisical, happy-go-lucky approach to be unacceptable in an activity such as tango, in which so much of the enjoyment that comes from a dance is having to move in unison -- mind, body, heart -- with your partner. And gaining the ability to move in unison with a partner takes skill. You're either one of the gifted few who were born with that skill, or you're one of the countless many who need to work at it.

I understand, however, sort of, what she is saying. If someone steps on my toes I shouldn't mind, because, after all, toe-stepping is just part of the tango experience; that said, I would also expect that if I stepped on my partners' toes she wouldn't bite my head off, either. But if I knew the partner didn't care about whether she continued to step on my toes I certainly would mind; likewise I would expect her to get pissed at me if I continued carelessly to step on hers.

In short, a partner who isn't so skilled at dancing but wishes to improve is one thing, and I would gladly dance with her to the best of my ability (and hers) without hesitation. But a partner who isn't skilled and doesn't care to improve is someone who I'd rather not dance with at all. There's no point to it. It won't be fun, and there's no improvement to look forward to.

Ms. Train advocates a masturbatory mindset, one that's selfish and wholly self-gratifying. Tango is not a solo activity ... or, rather, like sex, it shouldn't be. True tango involves partners. And when each dance is begun, each side of the union should try not only have a good time, but should also try to make his or her partner's experience enjoyable as well.

I tell her about something my teacher Marcelo said to me over dinner one night.

I was telling him how, after three months of tango, I still didn't want to go to a milonga. He said I was leading well enough and wasn't sure why I was so hesitant to go. I told him that, first of all, I'm naturally shy. Second, I still felt as if I didn't have enough skill to lead a partner without screwing up big time. And third, even if I could dance a song without messing up, I didn't want to bore my partner death.

"I just want my partner to have a good time when she's dancing with me," I told him. "And I don't think I can do that yet."

He smiled at me, then replied: "Martin, with an attitude like that, I guarantee you're going to be a popular dancer. Your partners will appreciate it. That's what tango's all about ... the relationship between the partners. Just take your time."

Ms. Train had a different take on the conversation.

"I feel sorry for you," she says. "You've probably missed out on a lot of fun activities throughout your life just because you thought you weren't good at them."

I do admit that I've given up on things I felt that I wasn't good at: salsa being one of them, and of course mathematics being another. But I'm far from someone who's been too afraid to try something new. My hobbies/passions/experiences are pretty eclectic. They include 25 years of many different martial arts activities, three years of car racing, five years of living abroad in two different countries and traveling to many others, gaining the ability to converse in a couple of foreign languages, writing, wine tasting, drawing, guitar playing, and now tango.

I've had a blast doing all of the activities. No kidding, huh? I wouldn't have been doing them if I didn't find them fun. In many of the activities, I also am considered fairly accomplished: world championship appearances in three different martial arts, a world champion title in naginata, national champion titles in three martial arts, journalism awards, art contest wins, etc. Mentioning the list above was not meant to brag by any means, rather it was meant to illustrate that one can be very serious at improving in an activity and still have fun in the process. If you enjoy the process of training and practice, the accomplishments will take care of themselves.

I can accept that there are people -- Ms. Train among them -- who don't want to (and therefore don't need to) put any serious effort into improving at tango; they're perfectly content to derive whatever pleasure they can get out of the dance with only what they already know, and have no aspirations to delve deeper into an extremely deep dance. But I sure wish that those people who care nothing about improving themselves would just stop trying to convince those of us who do that mediocrity is all we should aspire to.

Video: Me at the USNF Nationals

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I was working on a video of me doing shiai at the recent US Naginata Federation's National Championships. The video went live on Google Video this morning.



Some may say I'm a bit of a narcissist to post such highlights of myself for the whole world to see. Take this in whatever way you wish, but I've always believed that, yes, even martial artists (and in this case, competitors) should use technology to help them improve. With modern video technology, the everyday person is afforded an invaluable tool he/she can use any time to pick apart not only their strengths and weaknesses but also those of their competitors. Of course this kind of study is mainly for people who to take a more hands-on approach to their training, rather than expecting to be spoon-fed by their sensei. well, I made this video to study, and I posted it much for the same reason that I write this blog: to share my thoughts with whomever cares to read or see. (I added the music to make it a bit more interesting.)

With that said and done, although this video is ostensibly a collection of "highlights," it actually represents just as much a testament to my folly: It is a compilation of almost all the action in all of my matches -- whether initiated by me or my opponent; whether the action resulted in a score or resulted in nothing. As one can see, the vast majority of my strikes did not score ... many were off target (slipping off the men, for example) or did not exhibit proper distance or zanshin. My speed and timing, however, wasn't so bad ... and except for the two times that Magpayo scored off me, I had reasonable responses to almost all attacks thrown at me. (I was scored on three times that day: twice by Magpayo and once by Saxton.) Even so, compared with my matches two years ago in Bryn Mawr (naginataka.com/bryn.htm), I seem to be less mobile. This, according to my sensei, is a mark of maturity, though I have to tell you, moving around the ring is much more fun.

Watching the video, I realize that Magpayo was able to get past my defenses not necessarily because he was quicker than what I could handle, but rather because his attacks were so smooth they didn't trigger my automatic responses. In fact, I hardly responded at all to the sune he threw to end our shiai in the team match (shown at the 1:23 mark in the video). Dealing with smooth attackers is something I must work on, because it seems that is a definite trait of the European naginata fighters who I will face in Belgium next year, and who I played with in the 2003 INF World Championships. (Click here for a video of the Belgian mens team in action)

I think that in general, the U.S. men -- particularly people like Saxton and Lowe -- are much more explosive in their attacks than the Europeans. We *might* be quicker, but the Europeans seem more smooth. And to me, their smoothness masks their formidable speed -- and their reach. It was very "interesting" fighting them in the 2003 INF worlds. And I'm sure it'll be interesting matching with them in the 2007 INF worlds as well.

Oh yeah, if any of you can point me to some videos of Japanese men naginata matches, please do so. I'm very much interested in checking out their style.

Well, enough for now. Back to work ....

Found some older videos of me

While chatting with one of the naginata folks from the East Coast, I was made aware of some naginata videos of matches in the 2004 USNF national championships that were posted to the Web (www.naginataka.com). I participated in that tournament -- in fact, that was the one in which I beat Saxton for the first time, on my way to become the (now former) national men's shiai champion.

The thing I found most interesting while studying these videos is to compare how much my naginata fighting style has changed over the last two years. In my various matches (for example, vSaxton and vEngalla) I seem to be moving around much more than I do now. I used footwork that came naturally to me from my extensive karate and limited boxing training (ie., using angles, changing up distance, skip steps, etc.) Over the last couple of years, however, I've tried to "mature" my fighting style, as my sensei might put it, by trying to remain as calm and motionless as possible before an attack.

Remaining motionless with opponents whom you believe to be quicker than you and in possession of superior timing and sense of distance requires that you have utmost confidence in your reactions and speed. Prior to this year, I believed the likes of Saxton and Peterson were so superior to me in those respects that the only way I could equalize the odds was to give them a a moving target and to fight them in a way that made their ability to time me more difficult. Another factor was that I believed I had superior conditioning than most of my opponents, so I could keep up a much more active pace than they could.

The criticism i hear incessantly from many quarters is that you cannot move around so quickly if you had a real naginata in your hands. While I accept that as true, I also accept that most of the people who level the criticisms couldnt hold a real real naginata and even make a straight cut. So much of what we do with shiai naginata, the critics included, cannot be done with a real naginata, so their point is pretty much moot.

I may talk about that later. Needless to say, I do understand that as one matures in this art, ones movements become much more economical.

As I post videos of me in the most recent national championships, I think the comparison between how much my movement has changed will become evident. It should be fun to watch.

I'm no longer the champ

The US Naginata Federation yesterday concluded its 2006 national championships and US team tryouts, which were held at Sonoma State University. And with its conclusion, I am now a former national champion. Kevin Saxton beat me in the men's individual shiai finals 1-0 -- in overtime.

I came out with two silvers and a bronze, a result that is far from the three golds I aspired to, but not so bad of a record, either. (For official results, click here.) More importantly, I qualified for the US world championship naginata team that will be sent to Belgium next year.

The tournament was smaller than what most people expected it to be, but the numbers once more belied the quality of competitors.

A number of veterans were there again -- including Saxton, Peterson, and Schmucker -- but what made the experience really interesting were the newcomers to the yudansha division. As I expected, Engalla of the Greater New York Naginata Federation (who isn't really a newcomer, but is nonetheless relatively new compared to the abovementioned competitors) has come into his own -- actually defeating Peterson in a match. His teammate, Magpayo, did a similar feat (he also beat me in the team match!). Goerzen, of the Northern California Naginata Federation, also showed huge improvements. During his matches with Saxton and Schmucker he held his composure and mostly refrained from doing the "stupid" things (eccentric kamae and moves) that he often does in practice.

Prior to the tournament, we had four days of seminars and workshops. Although I enjoyed almost every one of them that I attended, I have to say that after four days of training, sometimes over the course of 12 hours (including lunch and dinner breaks), my feet and legs were killing me. It was worth it, however, to re-establish ties with naginata practioners around the country. Some of them I havent seen in years. I had a lot of fun BSing with teammates, rivals, and sensei.

I cannot wait for the next event, whenever that may be.

I'll be working on a video, which I hope to have up on Google Video by the end of this week. It should be fun to watch.

So ... I have two world championships to train for now: the Shotokan Karate International World Championships in Tokyo (November 2006) and the International Naginata Federation World Championships in Belgium (August 2007).

Wish me luck.

Tournament update

It's already been two weeks since the SKI-USAF qualifying tournament for the SKIF world championships. I'm sorry I'm late for with this update.

I managed to place first in my division for kata and third place overall. I also, at the last minute, decided to do kumite. 12 years since i retired from competition, I entered the ring and got pretty much beat up. I'm not disheartened, though. My losing had more to do with ring rust than anything else, and now that I've gotten rid of some of that, I think I'll be in good shape for Japan. I placed third in my division.

A couple of observations.

In kata, as I thought, it seems the judges are more swayed by posing than they are by movement. The winner was good. But there seemed to be little of martial quality to his kata. the person who got second place in kata was better than the winner, in my opinion. I think what is needed now is for me to re-learn how to pose for the judges. I retired from competition to get away from the posing game, but I guess when in Rome I must do as Romans.

In kumite, as I said earlier, I attribute my loss more to a matter of ring rust than anything else. I saw the man coming, as he really loaded up to hit me. I timed him well earlier on, but he got me with two good shots...one as i was trying to beat him to the punch. Didn't help me any that he was 6-7 inches taller than me, and a sensei at a dojo in the city. he beat me 1-0.

Anyway, I've picked up my training, so I think I'll be okay in Japan.

Now I just have to prepare for the naginata nationals in two weeks.

It never ends.

Update: 07/18/2006
Just posted a video on Google Video of one of the kata I performed at the tournament. It isn't the most impressive kata around, but it's a start. Because I've not done a Shotokan kata for tournament in years, my stances are much higher and shorter than they should be (thanks to the shorin-ryu influence). Consider this a work in progress.

katori shinto ryu naginata

this is a video of a traditional naginata demonstration i found on google video. its katori shinto ryu.

apparently theyre pre-scripted routines ... though they look as if theyre really fighting. extremely interesting.

I've picked my two tournament kata

I'm still tuning up Bassai Dai, Kanku Dai, Jion, and Empi. I think all but Kanku Dai are coming along just nicely (I dont like to practice Kanku Dai much because it's so friggin long and it's kind of boring.) I have to get each and every one of them perfect by the time I do the kohaku kata competition in Japan.

I've also decided on two kata i hope will get me through the semifinals and finals: Unsu and Gojushiho-sho.

I've been practicing Unsu for the last three or four weeks, just trying to bring out the spirit of the kata. Right now, i think the rhythm and timing are progressing nicely, but I'm stil way too rough. over the next three to four weeks, I hope to see me getting much more graceful with the kata, while still maintaining the power I've been working on.

As for Gojushiho ... One reason i never really liked this kata as a competition kata is because I found it wuie difficult to bring out the life of the kata. I don't think I've seen anyone so a really lively Gojushiho yet -- almost everyone either really emphasizes the power of the kata (like they do with Sochin) or they simply try to make it tehnically sound at the expense of making it dynamic. I had no one to emulate, so figuring out my own rhythm and timing was pretty time consuming. Thankfully, over the weekend, I think i started touching on the proper feeling of the kata. I'll try to further develop my feel for the kata over the next few months.

Also, as i work out at home, I'm getting more and more inspired to do kumite.

If i decide to do it, i sure hope my ankle doesn't get torn apart.

:(

more on training later.

I'm still a fat bastard

I certainly don't look like it, but apparently I'm still a fat bastard! I weighed myself in the locker room today.

170 pounds.

Shit.

This is crazy, too, because I feel like 155-160. And people say they've noticed I've lost a lot of weight. But 170 pounds isn't too far off of 174, which was the heaviest I'd ever recorded myself. Maybe the scale might be broken?

Who knows? At least I'm moving quicker. I'm feeling leaner. And my training is picking up.

I did some sequences from the kata Unsu tonight. It's been so long since I did that kata. It's rusty, but the core feeling of the moves is still there. I'm confident I can get it to a world-class kata by November. Also, my four basic kata -- Bassai Dai, Kanku Dai, Empi, and Jion -- are shaping up nicely. I'm particularly pleased with the progress of my Jion and Bassai Dai. They're shaping up to be very solid.

In other news, I'm seriously considering going for kumite at the world championships. This is despite my screwed ankle. I am going to tape the shit out of my ankle everytime I train and when I fight in Japan. I should be okay.

He's back -- competitor already in the swing of things

I don't know what happened, but it's as if someone flipped on the switch and I'm back in training mode. The competitior within me, which was dormant since I got into tango last year, has awakened once more.

I don't think there was one single reason for this re-awakening, but rather a confluence of events ... the first of which happened last week. And that had a little to do with a woman.

For the 26 years that I've been training in the martial arts, I've had a personal rule not to get involved with anyone I trained with ... especially someone I teach. Despite all the women that I've come across in these past two and a half decades -- many of whom were attractive and some of whom were interested in me -- I pretty much stuck with this rule. There is, however, one woman who trains with me now who has been growing on me for the last few months. I thought it was under control, but a week ago, I realized that I was wrong. I found myself thinking of her quite a lot, such that it had gotten to the point where, for the first time in my martial arts career, I said to hell with my rule! Unfortunately, she wasnt interested in me the same way. Needless to say, it was a blow to my self-confidence, and I think a low-level depression set in.

Then last week, I had no tango classes. My teachers took off to Argentina on a tango trip and took a bunch of students with them. They cancelled their tango classes, which left the poor bastards like me who were left behind to come up with other things to do on class days. Rather than train in martial arts, I chose to wallow in my depression.

Then, on Thursday, I went to Sacramento to visit an aunt and uncle who were in the hospital for strokes. My aunt had a massive stroke on Sunday morning. My cousin Edwin took her to the hospital. The next day, while Edwin was taking his dad to visit his mom, his dad had a minor stroke, too. Poor Edwin. As of this writing, my aunt is still in the hospital, but my uncle has been discharged.

But I think that's when things started to change. While we were in Sacramento, we visited our other relatives. They put on a video of the Pacquiao-Morales boxing match. There's nothing like a good boxing match to get you pumped. And this match was damn good. Both Pacquiao and Morales were true warriors out there. Incredible and inspirational.

Anyway, I think it was the combination of the boxing match as well as the knowledge that I traditionally ride out my depressions by training, that got me to pick up the skipping rope and weights on Saturday night. Between rope skipping, weight lifting, shadow boxing, an kata, I got a pretty good 1.5-hour workout. And at the end of the session, I wanted more...but decided not to push it too far too early. i retired for the night.

The next day, on Sunday, I marched with the naginata group in the San Francisco Cherry Blossom parade. It was kind of fun to be marching and showing off to crowds of non-martial artists. When I was fighting Curt in the streets, I heard kids saying: "Oh! look at him! He's just like Musashi!" And at another point, after Curt and I stopped fighting for a while, a group of people in the crowd started chanting: "fight! fight! fight!" of course, Curt and i did!

It was all in good fun. And I swear, it felt good. Curt and I started making arrangements to become training partners again in preparation for the naginata world championship qualifiers.

When I got home, I rested for a few hours, then did another 1.5-hour workout before I popped online to chat with Stuart. Stuart is an old karate buddy of mine, and a longtime training partner when we were kids up until we went our separate ways in college. He hadnt been training for maybe 6 or 7 years now, but said he'll start again in a couple of weeks. I hope he does. It would be good to train with him again. I feel the old me coming back.

Would be good to have the old him right there by my side again.

Looking forward to hard training, hard hits, and hard drinking.

Life's good.

Diary of a sick, lazy bastard with dreams of world domination

It's Sunday afternoon and I'm lying down on my bed hammering out a blog entry.

I should be training now, but I'm sick. (Biologically, guys, not metnally.) I came down with a nasty bug earlier this week, one that seems to be hitting everyone from coworkers to roommates to coughing sons of bitches sitting next to me on Caltrain: running nose, sore throat, coughs, headaches ... the works. I had to leave work early on Friday and I skipped naginata class later that night so I can come home and sleep.

When I was much younger, I had the attitude that when sick, you have to train your way into health. On top of that, I had the attitude that given a strong enough will, nothing should be able to stop me from my appointed duties -- whether those duties be work, teaching class, or training in whatever the hell I was training in. For the last few years, however, I've kind of mellowed out. When sick, I'm much more prone to rest at home or look for a good bowl of Vietnamese pho, I forego all but the most critical of my duties, and I lay off on the training.

It's worked fine for me so far, but I kind of think I should adopt a younger frame of mind again.

You see, I've been kind of slacking off in training in the last two years, especially after I got into Argentine Tango (my newfound addiction). But in three months, I will be participating in the US Naginata Federation's 2006 National Championships. In the same week, I will try out for the US team to the International Naginata Federation World Championships to be held in Belgium in 2007. No trivial matters, even without adding the fact that I'll be defending a national champion title in individual yudansha men's fighting and a world championship title in mens team fighting. Sure would look bad if I dont place this year in the nationals or dont make the team for the worlds. Just like Dana Carvey's Saturday Night Live George Bush character of the 1990s: I don't want to be a one-termer.

Moreover, sometime real soon, though I don't know exactly when, I'm supposed to be trying out for the US team to the 9th Shotokan Karate International Federation World Championships in Tokyo this year. It would be the first time I'd be going to compete in the 3d SKIF Worlds since 1988, when I was only 19 years old. I want to fight there, too, but because of a bad ankle I am hesitant to do so. I believe I still have a world-class repertoire of Shotokan kata, though. So I'm looking forward to going against the best of the best once more.

Another thing I'm looking forward to ... I'll be very happy at these upcoming events. Not only will I get to experience the rush once more of competition amongst the best that the nation and the world have to offer, but I'lll also get an ample dose of Tango as well: The weeklong naginata events in wine country coincide with Nora Dinzelbacher's Tango Week in nearby San Fracisco. And I believe the 2nd the Tokyo World Tango Festival is being held around the same time or a week or two after the SKIF World Championships.

Totally lucky for me, but probably unlucky for anyone counting on me to be focused.

I've got to straighten this out.

Video: Yamanni Ryu Sai & Tunfa

This is me doing a Yamanni Ryu sai and tunfa (or tonfa) kata during a demonstration at the 2003 De Anza College karate tournament.

(sorry about the quality)

Video: Yamanni Ryu Bojutsu

This is me doing a Yamanni Ryu bojutsu kata during a demonstration at the 2003 De Anza College karate tournament.

(sorry about the quality)