"Healthy" Warm Up Exercises

[Bill Glasheen]

Max is very old school, Bert, and by the way a friend of our website. He's also the perfect candidate for Okinawan karate, as - like Okinawans of previous generations - he uses his body for a living. In the past it was farming and fishing, and transferring those skills and implements to a martial purpose. Max is a brick mason, and so has those physical and mental tools to bring to his discipline.

We folk who sit on our butts for a living have to approach a laborer's art with some fundamental deficiencies. First, we don't know how to use our bodies the way a farmer or a fisherman or a laborer does. And second, we're operating "cold" - physically speaking - until we put the gi on and bow in. Or MOST people do... If you're like me, you park at the far end of the parking lot, take stairs instead of elevators, walk a very active and demanding dog several times a day, and mow your own damn lawn. That's about the best a suburbanite can do.

Just to give you an idea of the discrepancy... When I visited Germany where my student Bruce had opened a dojo, he was pointing out the difference in habits of Germans vs. Americans. Unlike Americans, they walk (whenever possible) to where they need to go rather than go from garage to supermall parking lot. They don't have preservatives in their meats, so there are places (to walk to) near homes where they pick up a day's worth of meat on a regular basis. In short... you don't see the morbidly obese everywhere there like you do in America when you people-watch in a Walmart. People may eat "unhealthy" meats and dairy every day there, but they walk everywhere and their food isn't filled with preservatives. So even the elderly look and are in great shape.

Food for thought.

- Bill

[maxwell ainley]

Bert,

We are on the same page ,if there are differences ,its approach .
How you approach uechi-ryu is; via the dan/ kyu system ,I do not ,but so what its all uechi-ryu .In my approach you start the kicks when you take on board seisan ,that's were the first introduction to a kick is or would be taught ,the time span would be between three to four years of training .In the dan kyu system there would be no catering for this approach ,a different school of thought at work ,but its still uechi-ryu ,different approaches .
It may appear we are on different pages ,but its a perception problem at work ,okay we don't have kick ,but what actually gets us onto the kicking page ,apart from running down the road to some one who offers a kick straight away ,it would be in my experience ,a serious focus upon structural dynamics involved in sanchin that prepare us for the kick .
So you would after search your sanchin for as many elements that make up a kick ,in this approach we are not taking it for granted we have a kick ,a very very serious study of the dynamics is under-way in no uncertain terms .

[maxwell ainley]

Bill ,thanks for viewing me as friend .Yea I am a expert at warming up at work,along with millions more :)one thing you may find of interest is ; we may have to warm up quite a few times during any one day ,plus we have to account for weather systems ,some days you struggle to get warm .

[KentuckyUechi]

So do send me an e-mail (you haven't posted yours). Let's do this soon. The gi isn't happy if it isn't being used.

Bill, I sent you an e-mail. Not sure if you got it, anyway my e-mail is whitemillskarate@hotmail.com

[Bill Glasheen]

Got it, Bert! Thanks.

From your other e-mail address, it looks like we may be in the same industry (different players). Go figure...

- Bill