Together with Lawrence Kane, Kris has released a fascinating book called The Way to Black Belt, a fascinating exploration of what it takes to become a black belt, looking at all aspects of mind, body and spirit.  The book covers a huge variety of facets of martial training to reach the level of black belt, including dojo training and all the extra curricular development activities.

In their exploration, Messrs Kane and Wilder have shown that karate, pursued fully, is a total exploration of mind, body and spirit, and that attitude and mindset are the vital foundations for true achievement.

I highly recommend the book, and not just because they authors were kind enough to give a mention and link to The Applied Karate Show podcast.

Buy The Way to Black Belt at Amazon.com.

This epsiode discusses The Meaning of “Pinan”.  The name of a very popular series of beginner to intermediate kata, created by Anko Itosu, Pinan (pronounced Heian in Japanese) is generally literally translated as “Peaceful Mind”.

Clearly Iain is not a believer in this translation, and for good reason.  Firstly, its quite clear that the word “Mind” is not represented by either of the kanji in Pinan.  The first kanji – Pin or Hei (?) – means peace, while the second – An (?) – can mean easy, cheap or tranquil.  So a more correct translation might be “Peace and Tranquility”.  This would be a very good explanation in finding a Japanese translation of the word Pinan.

Cleverly, Iain has realised the obvious that most of us haven’t necessarily considered – that Okinawans at the time of Itosu’s creation of the Pinan kata (late 19th or early 20th century) didn’t necessarily look to Japanese literature in naming things.  Instead, they looked west to China, an empire who had a massive influence on the tiny kingdom of Okinawa for centuries.  So Iain has looked for a more Chinese translation.

I won’t spoil the ending here, so please listen to Iain’s podcast on The Meaning of Pinan.  Its somewhat controversial, but a very thought provoking discussion.

I don’t think it really matters if Iain is right or wrong on this one.  What matters most is that he has taken the time to build a hypothesis, and has found logic to support it.  This type of thinking is important in the martial arts, as it gives us a chance to try to “get inside the minds” of the originators of our discipline, and thus gain a greater understanding of our art.

High fructose corn syrup is also terrible for you, and not even the most conservative of nutrition experts disagrees with that. While there are a few slightly more terrible liquids out there - liter fluid, for example - it’s really a shame that the “foods” available to us are so commonly laced with HFCS. And it’s even worse that they’re often promoted as being suitable for a healthy lifestyle or weight loss! They may look very cute, but beneath the fiber sprinkles and happy labeling lurks the heart of darkness. Really.

HFCS is a really bad additive to foods, and along with trans-fats is one of the two ingredients we should look for and absolutely avoid on food labels.  The stuff has a major correlation to obesity rates and those of metabolic syndrome.

The fact that HFCS is present in junk food is pretty much a given.  But its presence in so called healthier foods is a major cause for concern.

Read the article on Mark’s Daily Apple to find out 8 foods that should know better….

Originally posted on The Essential Karate Blog & Newsletter.

Applied Karate
Blurb: I’ve never needed to “apply” karate to anyone, but I’m sure that once I’ve listened to this, I’ll be armed. Des (our host) guides us through the complex and tongue-twisting world of Karate in its various forms, and in doing so, you get to meet some very interesting people along the way. This podcast covers Karate’s personalities, philosophies, techniques, technologies and history…
Episodes: 5
Web: http://karate.thepodcastnetwork.com/
Subscribe: http://karate.thepodcastnetwork.com/feed/
Jo’s Rating: Des is a very amiable host, and a man who knows his Eastern Martial Arts! Good interview talent as well. I particularly love the understated way that these men with lethal skills talk about themselves!

Podcast reviews - 11/5/06 :: ABC Brisbane.

From the Health & Fitness Show’s blog posting

Podcast with Don Stevenson on Stevenson. RKC, Olympic weightlifting coach, strongman enthusiast and proprietor of CrossFit Sydney and Octogen Fitness. www.octogen.com.au
about Kettlebells.

What is a kettlebell?

Kettlebells can be used for ultimate strength and cardio training for ultimate fat burning.

Kettlebell Core exercises - The Turkish Getup.

Time efficient training with Kettlebells - including flexibility training and core strengthening exercises.

What is an Olympic Strongman?

Corporate Weekend Warrior engaged in Olympic Training, can develop explosive strength with Kettlebell Training.

RKC - Russian Kettlebell Challenge with Pavel Tsatsouline - the experience.

Kettlebells are manufactured in various places around the world.

Make your own home gym.

Monthly Kettlebell Fitness DVD
http://www.octogen.com.au/dvdmagazine.htm

I recently undertook a kettlebell instructors course with Don, and can attest that he is an excellent instructor and proponent of kettlebell and other strength and conditioning activities.

TPN::The Health & Fitness Show.

So I was shocked to read the following over on Diet Blog:

This has all changed - and I was shocked to read that Okinawa Island now has the highest rate of obesity in Japan (almost double that of the rest of Japan). Diabetes affects 8.2% of Okinawans compared to 5.7% nationally

Having visited Okinawa in 2005, I was surprised at the number of fast food outlets around.  I’ve read that this is as a result of the US Military influence – with at one time over 100,000 US military personnel on Okinawa, it is natural that they would want to have the taste of convenient fast food that they’ve become accustomed to.

But it seems that now the locals are big customers of the fast food chains, and its affecting the health of the people.

If you haven’t seen Supersize Me, or read the book Don’t Eat This Book (both by Morgan Spurlock), I encourage you to do so.  Both will give you a fascinating insight into the “Big Food” industry, and how this industry may be affecting our health as much as Big Tobacco has.

How the Okinawans Got Fat.

Let me know if there’s anything you want to see in the show this year - interview subjects, topics, etc.

Hope 2007 is a great year for you

Hong Kong action movie star Jackie Chan is looking to bequeath half his fortune to charity, following in the footsteps of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, local media reported on Thursday.

Karate Thoughts Blog: Block From Where Your Hands Are.

My Sensei, Professor Katsuhiko Shinzato, often says that we must block from where our hands are. If you punch the attacker’s chest and he throws a punch, you must block from where your hand is — on his chest. There is no time to pull your hand back or “wind up” before you block.

Whilst we all know about the importance of diet and exercise, scientists are concerned that we may not be paying enough attention to getting adequate sleep.

“When sleep is poor or inadequate, people feel tired or fatigued, their social and intimate relationships suffer, work productivity is negatively affected, and they make our roads more dangerous by driving while less alert,” said Richard Gelula, the sleep foundation’s CEO.

Cameron’s Brain: The Spider Monkey Trap.

The story I heard went something like this:

In order to catch spider monkeys, hunters in South America simply walk through the jungle and drop heavy containers on the ground. These containers have very a narrow top and a wider bottom. Inside the containers the hunters drop a special kind of nut which is particularly attractive to the monkeys. Sometime later, the spider monkeys come down from the tops of the trees, smell the nut, but the tops of the containers are so narrow they have a tight squeeze to get their hands inside. Once they grab the nut at the bottom, their fist is too large to remove if through the opening. And the containter is too heavy for them to carry.

So instead of letting go of the nut, the monkeys just sit there until the hunters come back, pick them up, and throw them in a bag.

The spider monkeys are not prepared to let go of a small nut in order to gain their freedom.

I don’t know if the story is true, but you get the analogy.

The best, to me, is the Martial Secrets Podcast, hosted by Sensei Kris Wilder of West Seattle Karate. Kris is also the co-author (with Lawrence Kane) of the excellent book The Way of Kata, which I believe is a must-read for all serious practitioners of arts with kata in them.

Martial Secrets is a podcast where we seek out some of the most interesting martial artists. We ask the questions and you get the benefit of their philosophy, training tips and experience.

Kris has had the ability to get a great range of guests for Martial Secrets, including Iain Abernethy, Loren Christensen (author of many great books) and others. He also interviewed Sensei Hiroo Ito, a direct student of Kaiso Kori Hisataka. I recommend people download those interviews, as well as an excellent one with Steve Barnes.

Apart from Martial Secrets, the only other one I listen to is Karate Cafe. Hosted by three practitioners of Kobayashi Shorin Ryu in the US, they have a weekly (mostly) show in which they talk about a number of topics pertinent to the karateka training after injuries, the value of free-sparring vs. drills, preparing for tests and so forth. I will say that I don’t always agree with some of the comments, but thats a healthy thing. These guys are provoking people to think about these topics, and giving their own perspectives.

Let me know if you find other good podcasts to listen to.

The Applied Karate Show will be a regular show all about classical karate. As the name suggests, the focus will be on the applied aspects of karate - the techniques, technologies, history, philosophies and applications. Whilst respect the sporting aspect is important to many karateka, we want to focus our attention here on these other aspects that don’t always get the limelight.

For those that are new to podcasting, it is an exciting application of technology that brings great audio content about a wealth of topics to you over the internet - in the form of an mp3 file. You can play it at a time and place that suits you, on your iPod or other mp3 player, or on your PC or Mac. You can even burn it to a CD and listen to it on your stereo…

For more information on podcasting, read TPN’s FAQ.

Using the RSS Web feeds, you can subscribe to our show in iTunes, Doppler, FeedDemon, or another Feed Reader. This way. new shows will just pop up when we release them. Alternatively, you’re always welcome to swing by this site, and listen to the latest show.

The host of the Applied Karate is me, Des Paroz. I’ve been studying Shorinjiryu karate since 1983. I currently hold the grade of yondan (4th Dan), and run a small dojo in Sydney, Australia.

I hope you enjoy our shows, and invite feedback to des@kengokai.com. Or leave a comment on this site.