Things to think about
This is the page where you find out a little about what is actually going on in the dojo, and some things that have little to do with our dojo at all. This page is dedicated to the random musings of Sensei Holland and Sensei Cox.
October 4th, 2003
Black Belt is your Goal...
There used to be a banner that streamed across Kyoshi Glover's Jacksonville dojo
that read "Black Belt is your Goal." At the time I was not
a black belt, and agreed whole heartedly with that statement. The real
question though, is once you have gotten black belt, what is your goal
then?
Sadly, too many karate-ka get to that goal, and seem to just
disappear. They stop working out, and never get that zeal they had for
training back when they were wearing green belts, or orange belts. I can
only imagine how tragic it is for an instructor to train a student up to
the point where they REALLY will start learning karate only to have them cease
in their training.
Last night I was speaking to Arthur Powell, one of Renshi
Cunningham's senior brown belts. Arthur will be testing for his black belt
in November along with Byron, Pappy Brake and Jet Taylor. Anyway...I was
talking to Arthur last night and we were talking about his test, of which he had
some intrepidation. He jokingly said he would be fine staying a brown belt
in order to avoid the inevitable beat down he was soon to receive. That
somewhat launched me into my opinion of why we have certain rank, and why we
promote students. I told Arthur that as long as he only wears a
brown belt, we would show him only brown belt techniques...but once he tests for
Sho-dan we would show him black belt techniques.
I have been a black belt a relative long time...since 1992,
but I still remember distinctly the feeling of accomplishment I had when I was
handed my black belt. Heh...when I got home from Jacksonville, I put my gi
back on just to see how it looked on me again. The years you put into
training aim towards one goal, that being achieving a black belt. When you
are a senior brown belt, you feel as though the class belongs to you, and
that feeling is only heightened when you first get promoted to black belt.
What happens then?
Shortly after getting black belt students are faced with the
reality of the fact that even though they have attained the lofty goal of
becoming a black belt, that they are only once again at the beginnning of
their new karate training. You go to seminars and you don't look at all
yudansha as just black belts like you used to do. You see them as Eight
degree masters, and fifth degree black belts and for perhaps the first time
in your training you truly feel insignificant. When I train with
people like Renshi Cunningham, Kyoshi Glover, or Kyoshi Perry I truly realize
how little I know about the martial arts.
So, if black belt was my goal, what is my goal now? I
see my goal as just becoming a better karate-ka nothing more, nothing less.
Sensei Holland
September 9th, 2003
Workout at the YWCA and a swift kick in the groin.
This last monday I worked out with Sensei Jon Oshita and his gang across town
at the YWCA. Sensei Oshita is a San Dan who is affiliated with Mitch
Kobylanski out of Charlotte. He has been teaching in the area for just
about as long as I have but we never knew of the existence of the other until
maybe a year ago. Since then I have made a couple of trips to his dojo and
we have exchanged emails and spoken on the phone several times. A couple
of weeks ago two of his students worked out with us on a Saturday, so I
thought it was about time visit his dojo and work out in their place.
Isshinryu is Isshinryu, but there are some differences
between schools depending on where you learned from. There are slight
differences in Kata, and even in the upper body basics. (Their number 13
is our 14 slighty changed...their number 14 is our 13 exactly. Also they
do number 10 going forward starting with a low block!) Pretty cool
stuff. I love seeing new bunkai for the basics I have been doing for
years.
During this workout I found out two important facts
that I know will stick with me. First, Kevin Harvey, Sensei Oshita's
senior student is double jointed. I found this out when I was
demonstrating a move which applied pressure to the elbow. When his elbow,
which was not supposed to bend, bent...I assumed I had the hold wrong and
reversed it...only to have it bend again. After a few seconds they let me
in on what was going on and we all got a good laugh out of it. This guy's
elbow SERIOUSLY bends in the opposite direction. I will have to remember
this if ever I end up on the mat with him.
The second thing I learned during this workout is that Sensei
Oshita and company ALWAYS wear a cup, and for good reason. Any time they
demonstrate a groin move they actually kick each other there. I found this
out when Sensei Oshita was demonstrating a move from Chinto and delivered unto
me, a controlled but solid shot to the jewels. We both new at that moment
that I was not wearing a cup. Heh...different schools different
ideas. When visiting his school from this point on though, I will have
mine on.
We did much discussing of the bunkai of Chinto and I learned
a new perspective on several moves. All in all I had a great time and look
forward to cross training with them more in the future.
Sensei Holland
August 30th, 2003
Much more alike than not.
I had a good time getting to work out with Kevin and Desiree today. We
compared Kata, Bunkai and talked about many of our experiences. They
certainly were not run of the mill karate-ka. Both look very sharp
performing kata and I can vouch for the fact that you would not want to be on
the receiving end of one of Kevin's roundhouse kicks.
I am looking forward to working out with these two, and their
Sensei more often. Next monday I plan to work out with them at their dojo
in the YWCA. After hearing these two describe their workout routine, I
doubt I will be able to walk the next day...
I will post my condition here that following Tuesday.
Sensei Holland
August 23rd, 2003
"I firmly belive that without proper training on the Makawara, there is little to the vertical punch…it is not how hard we hit the board… it is how we consistently hit the board that develops the vertical strike that is the trade mark of Isshin-ryu Karate…"
Sensei John Starzynski
August 3rd, 2003
Belt Test Checklist...
Kick Mike in the Head Completed!
Injure Beth in a random location Completed!
Hit Ashley with the shinai in excess Completed!
Give Mike the "Death Thumb" Incomplete
Punch Mike in the ribs 5 times Completed!
Keep My wife from getting angry at me Incomplete
Flummox Mike by doing basics in Japanese Completed!
Make Ash fight to exhaustion so that he Incomplete
would make an easy target
Oh well...no one is perfect.... I have to say that I was very impressed with all three candidates this weekend. It will be nice to have a couple of new brown belts in the dojo. I suppose I will try to improve on accomplishing my goals on the August 16th test.
Sensei Holland
July 26th, 2003
Camp Budo!
This event has me fired up! What a great time. Sensei Cox getting promoted to Yon-dan was a pleasant surprise, and just being around such a diverse and talented group of martial artists is enough to keep those of us who went fired up for months.
Sensei Holland
July 20th, 2003
At the Car Wash...
It was 9:30am, I was standing in the pouring rain with about 15 kids and a
handful of adults and I was soaked. The skies were overcast, and some
random stranger had just driven by the car wash and donated twenty bucks, I
believe out of sympathy for our situation. To say the least, the outlook
was dim.
An hour later, the sun was out and we spent the next three
hours washing cars pretty much one right after the other. At the end of
the day we had earned enough money to pay for materials and pizza, along with
enough money to give the church about 75 dollars, and some money left for a few
small equipment upgrades.
I appreciate the attendance of the kids class at this
event. The only three regular students not in attendance at 8:00am were
out of town. Those three students all showed up before the day ended
though (Will Cooper from Charlotte and his cousins Matthew and Patrick Burke
from New York.) Mike, Stacy, Jay, Jerry, Beth and Sensei Cox were all
there and working too. I think everyone had a good time, I know that I
did.
Anyhow, I finally got home from dinner, after class, at
9:15pm. I laid on the bed for what I believed was to be about fifteen
minutes, but rather turned into eleven hours. I was that tired.
Once again thanks to all who participated, and to those who
told their friends and family about it.
Sensei Holland
July 3rd, 2003
One Year!
Hard to believe it has been one year since we moved from my living room
into the family life center. A lot has happened since then for sure.
We have grown from 6 regular students into our current size of around 35.
I think its safe to say that we have all made knew friends, and the lord has
truly blessed us in every way imaginable.
It really is hard to believe a year has gone by. What
have we achieved? We have one student closing in on black belt and
two on the verge of brown...multiple green belts and a kids class full of blue,
orange and yellow belts!
During the year we added another black belt. I can not
express what a blessing it has been to have Sensei Cox work out with us.
What he brings to our cadre in the realm of knowledge and experience is
immense. But to me he is more than the man who trained me to black belt,
he is my friend.
We have been visited by Renshi Cunningham not once, but
twice! We have given out a boat load of nicknames and we have all sweat
and bled together...and in the case of Chris "Cujo" Woodard, broken
bones together. We have done the basics dance, worked kata until it hurt,
and ran many a lap around the gymnasium. We have won trophies and we have
done six inches. Most importantly though, I feel that we have truly gelled into
a family.
Hard to even speculate what we will accomplish next
year. Next July it is very possible that we could have 3 new black
belts, students nearing brown belt in the kids class. (imagine that !)
So as a closing remark, I want to thank everyone for
making me feel like I have the absolute best class in the world.
Sensei Holland
June 19th, 2003
Your Isshinryu Lineage
A Student recently asked me how they would trace their training directly back
to Master Shimabuku. I asked them if they wanted the short answer or
the long answer...they answered by saying "The shortest possible
connection." My answer to that was to go through myself, then to Dan
Glover, then directly to Shimabuku. At that point the student (a child)
proclaimed that under that system it was that Shimabuku was like their
great grandfather in Isshinryu. My answer was "Not so fast..that was
only the short answer!" My student then asked me to give them the
lineage in full, and I told them that I would do so, as well as I know it on
this web site.
For the rest of this segment I plan to use the same family
terminology that was used by my student. So under that thought I am their
Isshinryu "father" and Sensei Cox, having been my Isshinryu father was
their grandfather..but one that lives with the family and has a good amount of
say in the raising of the child.
I had a similar Isshinryu grandfather coming up myself in the form of Dan Glover. Kyoshi Glover was Sensei Cox's sensei and having been Sensei Cox's first black belt I was often in contact with Mr. Glover. A good analogy was that I am a smurf, Sensei Cox was Papa Smurf and Kyoshi Glover was the yellow hatted grandpa smurf. All lived in the same village, but just like in the series, I saw alot more of Sensei Cox than I did of Kyoshi Glover.
Having been raised by Sensei Cox and then becoming estranged from that part of the family for a number of years I was legally adopted by Renshi Cunningham. Thus he is like the Grandfather on the maternal side. He was legally adopted by Kyoshi Glover..thus Kyoshi Glover is my students Isshinryu Great Grandfather on both the Paternal and Maternal side of the family. Renshi Cunningham's original Isshinryu training came under the hands of J.C Burriss, and while he had an impact in Renshi Cunningham's training we have to consider him an uncle or something because Mr. Cunningham's Isshinryu father was Chuck Chau, who promoted Renshi Cunningham to Sho-dan back in the late 70's.
Is the story confusing enough yet? Well we haven't really even grazed the top of the pigs back, so to speak. Remember that my students maternal and paternal great grandfather is Kyoshi Glover. Well he has been adopted multiple times. As far as I can reckon, Kyoshi Glover really had two blood fathers consisting of Master Don Bohan and Master Best. These men could be considered the "great-great grandfathers." Kyoshi Glover was also affiliated in the 1980's briefly with the AOKA, which is headed by Angi Uezu. Thus perhaps Master Uezu could be like a Great Uncle or something. Most recently Kyoshi Glover has taken up with the family headed by Phil Little. Hanshi Little is the head of the USIKA, the organization we are affiliated with and could also be considered "Great-great grand dad." Kyoshi Glover received his green belt from Master Shimabuku, that is how I shortened the lineage for the "brief answer."
Going up the chain, I will try to condense this some. Hanshi Little's Isshinryu father was Harold Long..who's Isshinryu pop was no other than Tatsuo Shimabuku. Under this line, Master Shimabuku would be the Great-great-great-great grandfather of my students.
J.C Burris was one of Hanshi Little's Isshinryu brothers having trained with Master Long himself. Remember that Renshi Cunningham started his training with Mr. Burriss. Master Bohan...whom was very influential in Kyoshi Glovers training trained directly under Shimabuku and received his black belt from him. Before that, Mr. Bohan started his training under Don Nagle, who also trained under Shimabuku, before Mr. Bohan. Chuck Chau...who trained Renshi Cunningham was the Isshinryu son of Master A.J Advincula. Mr. Advincula trained directly under Shimabuku. Under this line of training Shimabuku would be the "Great great great Grandfather" of my students. Only three greats that time!
When you look at the names of the people we are affiliated with in Isshinryu it is easy to be proud of our heritage. We come from quality material.
Sensei Holland
June 7th, 2003
Giant Posters, Speeding tickets, and a sore thumb.
I write this having just lost to Beth and Michael in a game of scrabble. A real tragedy in my opinion...I will attempt to dispel this mood dampener and comment on what is happening at the moment.
I will start off by saying that yesterday i had rotten luck. One stinking mile from Tarboro I was pulled by a State Trooper for doing 80 in a 65. Moreover my tag and inspection had just run out. I am surprised that the officer did not pull out his gun and shoot me in the leg for being so neglectful.
But when I got to Tarboro things improved a goodly amount. First, Sensei Brake presented me with a giant printout of me and Renshi Cunningham for my dojo. That really helped offset the four billion dollar fine that the state trooper had levied upon me. Then, as usual, we had a really great workout and thus I left the dojo in a fine mood despite having jammed my thumb while sparring somebody...not sure who.
Today's workout was nice. Mooch got his orange belt and we put the finishing touches on the plaque we made for the tournament. It looks really nice...perhaps I will put a picture of it on the site somewhere. I am now separating myself from this computer in order to put the whammy on Beth and Mike in some yahtzee.
Sensei Holland
June 4th, 2003
Children
In the late spring of 2001 I went to Renshi Cunningham and spoke to him about the possibility of teaching a few students out of my home. I had decided that my own training would be complimented by having a few friends to inspire me to work harder. I also knew that in teaching, you often learn more about your own training than in any other setting.
I had it all planned...I had three students picked out...my brother, my wife, and one of my best friends. After a few months of teaching I knew I had found my calling...that being teaching adults martial arts. Then the opportunity came to open a school in my church's family life center and I would have been a fool not to jump on it. Opening this class meant expanding my student base (which had already grown to 6 students) to anyone in the church interested in working out. Since I run the school on donations (no overhead costs) the initial interest was quite high. I knew that I would have to separate the children from the adults, so I chose to have ages 8-13 together..and all ages higher in the second class. The minimum age was eventually lowered to six years old before we set up our first class in the new gym.
The first day of classes came quickly after that. I have to admit that I was unsure how I was going to handle teaching the children. At this point I thought that I was better suited for teaching adults, and I was not sure it I had the patience for teaching younger karate ka's. The first day came around and we had 14 kids...class ran smoothly and afterwards I was astonished at how fascinated the children were with Isshinryu.
Now I will skip ahead about a year...for that is where we are now. I will preface what I am about to say by stating that I still love the adult class dearly...but I had no idea how life changing teaching these children would be to me. When dealing with children you get to watch them grow and mature into different people...and when you feel as though you have had even a small part of that, the feeling is indescribable. They (along with adults) become a part of your family...if you doubt this you should have seen me at the tournament we just took part in. Fortunately our class did well, because each time something went wrong in the slightest for any of my students...I was pained, I wanted so much for each of them to win.
Anyhow, our class has now expanded to around 20 students with 9 of them belonging to the original 14 I brought in last July. I can't wait to see what the next year holds.
Sensei Holland
June 3rd, 2003
Sensei Cox
May 29th, 2003
Nicknames, and such.
You have heard them, and I am sure you wonder where they come from and why we decide that certain kids should be called by something other than their name. Well the truth lies in the fact that it is somewhat random and spontaneous in some cases and in other cases it is quite deliberate.
Take for instance the case of Curtis "Lips" Hodge. I think this was a derived from when we used to call Curtis "Loverboy." We called him that due to the fact that he spends countless hours on the phone talking smooth to the ladies. Deciding that "Loverboy" was a lame nickname to give from one guy to another, we decided (we being Byron and I) that he should inherit the nickname "Lips." This has also caused the unfortunate side effect of Jeremy Hodge being called such undesireable things as "Lips Jr." or "Little Lips."
A completely different situation arose in the naming of Josh "Magoon" Lee. What happened on this day, was that Byron had decided that some kid was gonna get that name pinned on them before the day ended. At the very moment we were discussing this Josh came into the dojo, smiling broadly and making noise. At this point, simultaneously Byron and I shouted "Magoon!" and since this time the name has stuck.
Some nicknames are even more random than that... I don't know why I decided that Stephen King needed to be called "Mooch." None the less, he is now stuck with it.
But alas, not all nicknames are given out in such a haphazard fashion. Ernie "The Uzi" Brittain earned his nickname by his continuous, high pressure faultless performance of the fifteen basics. Rising to the occasion of any contest, "The Uzi" is truly fully automatic.
In similar fashion Chris "Cujo" Woodard rightfully earned his nickname for his almost uncanny ability to move across the floor on all fours at an incredible rate of speed. Seriously, I think that fool can crawl faster than he can run.
Some people just get nicknames because they remind us of something else. For those of you who have either seen the Lord of the Rings movies, or read the books it would be easy why we would peg the nickname "Gollum" on Sam Cooper. Sam is as skinny as a rail and kinda skulks around in a flacid and loose jointed sort of way. I think Beth was the first of us to make this name connection.
Or for that matter you can get a nickname simply because you are the exact opposite of what the name implies...such would be the case with Katlyn "Butch" Pickett.
There is a general rule here that one does not get to pick out their own nickname...that rule was kind of bent when Jordan Philligin pronounced that he was going to be called "Choki" because of his love for kumite. I told him that if he wants to go by that name he is going to have to do Naihanchi kata five hundred times a day.
If you don't have a nickname yet, fear not...your time will come. As the months and years pass either Byron, or Sensei Cox, or myself will hit you with some moniker that will stick. It is really just a matter of time.
Sensei Holland
May 29th, 2003
I hate web page design.
I have finished this cursed page, and finally all of it works. Here is a list of things I have found out along the way.
If the name of your web picture has less than 6 letters, the picture will not work.
If the name of your web picture has more than 8 letters, any spaces or symbols, the picture will not work.
If any of the 6-8 letter are capitalized, the darn picture will not work.
If the DPI is not set to 72 or less your picture is not going to work.
All of your best pictures will really look crummy with a DPI of 72 or less.
If your file is too big, no picture.
I had a choice....either make the biographies on the Instructor page really short, or give Sensei Cox, Byron and Myself the illusion of having misproportioned bulbous heads.
Some times pictures will not work for no apparent reason.
Trying to center anything right on Microsoft Front page is about as easy as cloning a unicorn.
The picture of my head, Bulbous or not, is very resistant to being published on the internet.
Sometimes, for no reason, all of the links you created to a page cease to work. Recreate the links, no dice....Recreate the page....no dice. Randomly delete on letter out of the title of the page, and bingo everything is peachy.
The group picture taken at Charles Junes tournament looked much, much better before it was reduced to 72dpi. The picture on this site, were it increased in size any more, would make each of our faces look as if we were testifying while participating in the witness protection program.
My Pictures seldom work, and when they do the text is never centered underneath them.
99 out of 100 christian web sites do not have a picture of a plain cross.
I think that just about sums it up for now. Please remember as you browse this site, that I spent many hours, pleading, coercing and attempting to bargain with my CPU to get this thing to work.
Sensei Holland
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