JKA of San Francisco Bay

Our parent organization, JKA SKDI, hosted an amazingly successful remote winter camp. Technically flawless. In terms of instruction, exceptional. Our chief instructor, Takahashi Sensei, 7th Dan, offered some inspiring thoughts about Japanese culture, self-perfection, and the way of karate. And then he pushed us, hard. Thanks to all from San Francisco Bay.

JKA of San Francisco Bay Instructor T.J. Stiles is still leading classes remotely during the pandemic surge, from his messy home in Berkeley, California. This short clip is from a recent class focused on body expansion, contraction, and expansion, both as a technical matter and as part of kumite tactics, adjusting to changing distance. Here we see moving the supporting foot quickly for a follow up technique with both the front foot and hands, without disrupting balance or height.

Before he died in 2018, Mori Sensei said, "For rice to grow, it can't shoot straight up rigidly. It must be able to bow." He taught the importance of humility. It's important for an instructor as well as a student. His instructor training program was not theoretical, but about turning an instructor into a good example. That requires proper technique and confidence. But confidence can't be brittle. An instructor must be able to laugh at his or her own errors, to show a commitm...ent to always doing better rather than a fear of failure. If you are afraid of making mistakes in front of your students, you will be afraid to demonstrate, to be seen by them. You will look fragile. We are all students, training to improve ourselves. Better to err when throwing yourself into your karate, rather than by holding back and being timid. As Mori Sensei liked to say, "Mistake, OK. But make a BIG mistake!" See more

Home training calls for some creativity. In a recent class at the JKA of SF Bay, we trained with a pencil as a target (stuck into a box or other holder). We trained this way first from a stationary position, then with shifting, then changing the angle, moving back left or right before striking the target again. Touch the pencil, don't send it flying!

At the JKA of San Francisco Bay, we're grappling with the pandemic by drawing on technology and adjusting our approach. In one recent class, we practiced the kata Sochina difficult kata for the limited space available for home training. We broke the kata into segments and reoriented for each new section. We do our best to keep training even under difficult circumstances.

A message from T.J. Stiles, instructor of the JKA of SF Bay: Today is the second anniversary of the death of my teacher, Mori Masataka, 9th Dan, Japan Karate Association. He was a traditional budo master in the modern world: difficult, demanding, uncompromising. My thirty-two years as his studenttwenty of them as a member of his dojo in New Yorkwere transformative for me. He was technically demanding, yet his teaching was always aimed at changing who we, his students, were ...as human beings. As he often said, "Karate-do is not just moving your arms and legs." Today I honor his memory, as I do every day. We are very fortunate in our association (the JKA Shotokan Karate-Do International, a part of the JKA), that Mori Sensei's legacy is carried on by Takahashi Sensei, who also has taught me many lessons about karate-do and its meaning. (Photo from 2010.)

A short clip from a home-training class at the JKA of SF Bay, practicing the jump in Heian Godan. There are many kinds of jumps in Shotokan karate-do. In the kata Heian Godan, the jump is designed primarily to avoid an attack to the lower legs. That means one's feet must clear as much distance as, roughly, the height of one's belt. This is not a common technique in kihon or kumite practice, and so is often performed incorrectly, as if one is jumping over a hole in the ground, rather than contracting the legs upward.

At the JKA of SF Bay, we think about kata as not strictly choreographed fights, nor as simple encyclopedias of techniques. They are our classical literature; in formalized, poetic form, they transmit ideas, spirit, principles, as well as physical movements and combinations. They are both direct source material for our training and knowledge, and food for thoughtinspiration beyond the literal techniques. In Heian Shodan, the three-step movements up and down the vertical axis ...of the embusen, after the gedan barai, are often executed with a tempo that speeds up at the end: 1, then 2+3. We find a principle here: With three steps, you can establish a rhythm with an opponent, then suddenly change the rhythm to surprise the foe and penetrate. In this training, we apply the idea first to a punching combination (kizami zuki, gyaku zuki, then oizuki/gyaku zuki), and then to a kicking and punching combination (mae geri, mawashi geri, then gyaku zuki/gyaku zuki). In each case, we speed up the tempo at the end, breaking the pattern to surprise and strike the opponent. See more

In the jump in Heian Godan, it is important to clear as much space off the ground as possible. You must contract the knees close to the chest, cross your legs, and tuck yourself into a ball. The point is to avoid an attack to the lower legs, not to simply jump over a hole in the ground. It takes practice to understand the relationship between the legs in the initial leap, in the air, and on landing. We practiced this in our home training class on Heian Godan.

This year the JKA SKDI summer gasshuku was cancelled due to the pandemic. This is probably the case for many karateka around the world: We lost the center of our annual calendar. Here are some memories from past summer training camps from the archives of JKA of SF Bay instructor T.J. Stiles, from the 1980s through the 2010s, featuring Mori Sensei, Enoeda Sensei, Osaka Sensei, Kurasako Sensei, Takahashi Sensei (Mori Sensei's successor as chief instructor of the JKA SKDI), and many others. Great memories, and a great inspiration for further training. Osu!

Home Training Continues! Members and friends of the JKA of SF Bay should contact instructor T.J. Stiles to take part in online classes. Meanwhile, here is one of three videos on home kumite-combination training. This combination reverses the order of the previous one. It’s good to practice this combination both ways, using ashi barai with the back foot, then mawashi geri with the front, and vice versa. The same principles apply. A deep back-leg initial attack helps to penetra...te the opponent’s position at the outset. Once you have closed the distance, a quick follow-up attack, or pair of attacks, can be effective. Again, circular leg techniques like mawashi geri and ashi barai require special attention to something we always have to maintain: a low center of gravity, inside the lower abdomen. Don’t allow centrifugal force to take over your motion. Stay focused mentally and in your line of force toward your opponent. See more

JKA of SF Bay home-training class tonight at 6:00 PM Pacific. The organizing theme will be Heian Godan, the fifth and last of the Heian kata. Again, before performing the kata as a whole we will practice drills that develop the mechanics of movement and the kumite concepts within the kata. A few points:... There is only one kick in this kata, mikazuki-geri, or crescent kick. Since it is the ancestor of the mawashi-geri, or roundhouse kick, we will practice both, so you can identify the difference in the mechanics and improve your technique. Two-handed blocks, especially juji-uke (X-block), are especially important in this kata. We will practice them specifically, since they appear in many kata. Blocking and attacking at the same time, or in very close succession, is critical in this kata. This is a vitally important kumite skill. This kata introduces jumping. We will not work on the jump tonight. My broken toe is supposed to be healed by now, but I still have some swelling in the right foot, which is the one you land on in the jump. We'll hold off and work on jumping in a couple of weeks. The kata is short, 23 movements by official count, and in a direct line. You may be able to perform the entire thing at home. Here is the current JKA video. Please take a look. We will hew closely to this current, official interpretation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La_5ZsEQht0 A note: The Heian kata, renamed by Funakoshi Gichin when he brought karate-do to the home islands of Japan, were originally called Pinan. They were developed by Itosu Anko (18311915), one of Funakoshi Shihan's two primary teachers in Okinawa, to teach beginning students. It is Itosu Shihan who convinced the authorities in the Ryukyu Islands to begin to teach karate-do in the school system, after centuries of being banned by the Japanese, who conquered Okinawa and the other Ryukyus in the seventeenth century.

The JKA of SF Bay will have a home-training class tonight at 6:00 PM Pacific Time. We'll be working on the elements of Jion, which makes for a fundamental kihon class. Here's the current official JKA video. Jion is one of the four sentei kata, the advanced kata that brown belts choose from for testing. Jion comes from the Shorei ryu, one of two primary historic schools of karate in Okinawa; it tends to be associated with very solid kata that place more emphasis on stability t...han on agility (including the Tekki kata, Hangetsu, and Jitte). In "Karate Do Kyohan," Funakoshi Shihan wrote of Jion, "I did not change this name. The Chinese character Ji-on appears in an old Chinese document. There was also a temple called Ji-on as well as a great monk named Ji-on. Clearly, this kata must have been passed down by someone associated with the Ji-on temple, as was the case with Shorinji temple kenpo." No one would look at the kata and think of Chinese wushu, but the name speaks to the ancient Chinese roots of karate-do, based on Okinawa's historic cultural ties to China.

Tonight the JKA of SF Bay will have a Zoom class at 6:00 PM Pacific Time. We will work on key elements of the kata Bassai Dai. Mondays we work on Heian and Tekki kata, Fridays on advanced kata. We're going to move forward through the sentei katalater Jion, Kanku Dai, and Empi. T.J. Stiles

JKA of SF Bay home-training Zoom class tonight at 6:00 PM Pacific Time. We’ll be going over Heian Shodan and what it teaches us about how to step, and Heian Sandan and what it teaches us about transitioning between stances. Sentei kata, including more on Bassai Dai, on Friday.

Today at 6:00 PM Pacific Time, we will have an online class.