Training equipment - makiwara and taketaba

I have been meaning to install a makiwara for quite a while now and with Eugene's help we made and installed one just over a week ago. Its a pretty simple piece of kit (2 planks of springy wood, an old cotton obi and some tape) but essential to traditional karate practice.

Makiwara practice undoubtedly helps condition and harden the hands but actually correct practice helps focus power through the whole body to coordinate the strike and so trains the ability to focus power accurately (kime in Japanese).

The base is buried about 2 feet deep to give sufficient stability. In the past when I made a makiwara for the back garden at our house in the UK I concreted in the base but found that actually the concrete crumbled and broke up after some time and repeated use. So this time its just buried firmly and we will see how that lasts. The striking pad is made form an old karate belt wrapped flat around the makiwara at chest height and secured with strong tape. Simple but works well and is not in fact too soft as it quickly compacts with use.

And thanks to the generosity of a neighbour I have harvested a huge bundle of fresh cut bamboo canes (it grows everywhere in Okinawa and quickly too) which inspired us to make a taketaba (which simply means 'a bundle of canes' in Japanese) which is used particularly by Goju-ryu karate practitioners to strengthen the nukite, or spearhand strike. I have never used this piece of kit before so this is new but immediately I can see the benefits. Not only does it toughen up and strengthen the fingers but also improves the accuracy of the spearhand strike as you naturally aim to strike cleanly between the canes and ever deeper through the cane bundle.

Next on the list of traditional training kit to make and try out - chishi . Easy enough to make and it will be interesting to see how closely the traditional chishi exercises overlap with the sledge hammer exercises we have been doing in our conditioning sessions.

Build update

I just realised how long it has been since I last posted an update on the dojo build. My only excuse is simply that there's been a lot going on over the past couple of months and doesn't time fly! So how is the dojo coming along I hear you ask? Well we have been training regularly in jujitsu and goshinjitsu at the Budokan in Naha for several months now and have a good core group attending regularly. I'm very happy with the effort and progress the guys are making and they obviously enjoy the sessions. There's a lot, lot more I want to do to explore, learn and teach but that's a whole other very long conversation. However turning to the dojo construction project at my house things have slowed down considerably due to lack of time and money. The quotes to get a contractor in to do the build were just too expensive so its back to the self build option. But the process of scouting around for quotes and meeting various people in the local building trade here has given me a few good contacts. I have been asking these guys to keep an eye out for excess or recycled building materials so I can keep costs down to a minimum. So as batches of materials become available I will nab them on the cheap and build bit by bit as it becomes possible. So how long until the dojo is built? It could be a while but in a way I quite like the idea of that, building it bit by bit, by hand. Both English and Japanese languages share the sentiment of the value of 'putting your heart into something' (in Japanese kokoro komette tsukuru) to produce something special. I would like to feel I had done that with my dojo.

Training and Goshinjitsu practice principles

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The seasons march on and the cherry blossom has appeared

 

Happy days - the cherry blossom has started to come out here in the garden below the dojo. Okinawa, being the mildest region in Japan, always sees the blossom earliest and this year its right on cue, if not a little early. Its lovely and when the seven cherry trees in the garden are in full bloom it will be a wonderful sight and we are going to have a steady stream of friends and family popping round to enjoy it. But I'm also reminded of the famously fleeting nature of cherry blossom, it really doesn't last very long at all, and time is marching on. I have had a couple of quotes in since my last post, one for timber frame, the other for steel frame, and frankly they are both way above my budget. So its time to rethink the design a little bit and ask myself what I really need and want to achieve, as well as get creative and look for ways to either find cheaper alternative partners or drive the prices down. I think I can negotiate down the quotes I have received somewhat but its hard to know the margins and levers in this local market so I'm reaching out to new friends and contacts here for help and advice.

The good news is that I have 20 straw tatami mats arriving next week. This adds to the 10 or so I already have put aside from the house renovation. One of the guys at the karate club is a tatami maker and he has very kindly offered to help by bringing around old tatami mats collected from clients when they refurbish their homes. My plan is to try out a double layer dojo floor with old thick straw tatami mats as the base secured in a frame with 20mm EVA jigsaw mats on top. Usually on a concrete floor you would want 40mm EVA mats to have a good protective cushion for breakfalling but the prices out here are astronomical so going for 20mm will save me a lot of money. I'll test out the combination at some point next week so lets hope it does the job!

Back to thoughts on slimmed down redesign of the dojo. What do I need? Ideally all I really need to do is make the space rain and typhoon proof. If I can't achieve that then all the mats will need to come up every time it rains which is going to be at the very least a pain in the neck (but would be a good workout!). So what if I go for a design that requires a sturdy frame and permanent roof and some side panels but leave more open spaces that can be covered by waterproofed heavy bamboo roll blinds? This will bring down the material costs quite a bit. I can also cut costs by doing as much of the work myself as possible - so the north porch and bridge for instance - I hope Eugene is good with DIY!

Its a new year - time to get cracking!

Things have been on hold on the dojo construction over New Year as we settled into our new home and enjoyed a steady stream of friends and family visitors. But that has also worked out well as I've made a friend who is in the building trade here and very keen to help out with getting the dojo up and running, and another friend who is a carpenter by trade although he works as an english teacher here. And I've had some fun tracking down bits and pieces of training kit including some alternative stuff such as tractor tyres, sledge hammers, ropes, sledges and sand bags as well as some good old fashioned weights and barbell.
My new builder friend is very kindly taking me to a steel frame fabrication company this week to get some quotes so if the price is right this might be the way we go. There are some advantages over a timber frame in terms of strength and quick assembly time (they prefabricate it offsite) but I still prefer a wood frame from an aesthetic perspective so the final decision is yet to come but I can't hang on much longer. At the very least I hope to get the hanging brackets made up for the heavy bags by these guys we will see on Thursday. Fingers crossed!