French Budo

As I was travelling to France from December 17 to January 6, I had the great pleasure to meet and train with my old Budo buddies from a long time ago...

I got to train twice with the Kendo club of Friville Escarbotin . 

My friend and instructor Francis Hollier, originally a Judoka, founded the Kendo club 30 years ago. I started to train with him in 1989 just back from Korea. Since then, I have tried to go train with him at least once a year...

From Left to Right : Pascal Barraud, Frederic Lecut, Abel Brunet, Francis Hollier. 

The four of us were training together 25 years ago in Kendo, Tai Jitsu and Tai Chi... After 22 years in the USA, I can go back to France and meet these guys, it is just as if I had left them last week !

While I was training in Kendo under Francis, he asked me if I would like to open a Tai Jitsu class. Which I did, under supervision of Jean Luc Lemoine, who was teaching in Rouen, 90 km South of Friville. I was not a black belt at the time and could only teach under supervision of a licensed black belt instructor.

On January 3, at Jean Luc's request, I had the pleasure and honour to teach a Yoshukai Karate Class for the Tai Jitsu club of Normandie...

Everyone had a great time...

Once you have practised Budo for years and years, there should be a realization that maybe this is not at all about fighting, but rather about making peace. 

Unless you are able and ready to fight, it is going to be difficult to live in peace. 

Faithfull friends are part of this...

Self Defense practice

5 weeks ago I attended a Black Belt test in Auburn. 

Yoshukai Karate testing includes a pre-arranged self-defense demonstration. Two partners attack the testing student who demonstrate in front of the judges his ability to get rid of them.

Over the years I have seen improvement in the level of proficiency students display. However, there are still too often people perform highly impractical moves, techniques that would result in getting their asses seriously kicked - or worse - if they were to use them in the street to actually defend themselves. 

Often  the problem lies with their instructors who may either not be very knowledgeable on this matter, (Yes, it happens...) or might not be demanding enough of their students when they let them test.

If your instructor lets you believe that you are sufficiently proficient in your art to be  able to actually defend yourself, when you actually are not; he is actually failing you, and if your goal in practicing Martial Arts is to be able to defend yourself, you should look somewhere else for better instruction.

However, at the end of the day, no matter how talented your instructor is, it is YOUR responsibility to make sure you can actually defend yourself by using proper techniques. You, and only You can train and make sure you are up to the challenge.

So how do you know ?

There is a very easy way to test your self defense. Once you have decided what move you want to use on which attack, find someone - if at all possible 50 lb heavier than you - who has no idea what you are going to do, and ask them to attack you. As he or she does not know what you intend to do, he or she will not be able to help and you'll see if your move would actually work or not.

If it works, keep it. If it does not work, change it. Your move might be a valid one, in need of some adjustment - timing, distance, angle, to make it work. Figure them out.  It might also be totally out of touch with reality, in that case, simply drop it and find something better.

One last thing... Remember that no matter how good you are, there will always be someone better than you. Don't be cocky. 

Taido o imashimubeshi

(be prudent in actions...)