Hearty

Hearty by name, Hearty by nature

[mrhearty]

My Return

First an apology,

I have been gone for a very long time! Perhaps even as long as a month or more. I must apologise for this and offer an explanation.

....Basically I went to Japan, it sounds a bit crazy and i'm not sure whether I mentioned it before I went but I traveled with a few others and my own sensei out to Okinawa in order to attend the IOGKF World Budo-Sai. I learnt a vast amount on my trip and would asvise any karateka with the resources to go out to Okinawa and train with the best Senseis and learn other lessons of their own.

I even got to train in Sensei Higaonna's own dojo! A genuinely awesome experience even if i did turn a little bit blue (no i can't explain it myself) but it was very humid so maybe that had something to do with it! It was hard enough just staying hydrated. Sadly Sensei Higaonna wasn't there the night that we went.......

....However, Mistry Sensei was there with Kuramoto Sensei and Sensei Linda Marchant which meant that we were still learning from the best. In my ignorance I had never heard of Sensei Pervez Mistry until I went out to Okinawa but he was so knowledgable not just on a karate level but on an anatomical level it was excellent. The morning after we went back to Sensei's dojo at 6.30AM to train Hojo Undo with Sensei Linda Marchant. The whole trip was unbelievable not even just in a karate way but in a holiday way too. The Okinawan people are so humble and will literally stop at nothing to help you if you need to find a specific place or need something specific. I can't really put it into words how good a time I had so I won't try.

More about this trip later! 

.....and more about possible trips in the future

[mrhearty]

Holiday Return

So I've realised already that calling this Holiday Return isn't the smartest move because in the US they call what we would call a Holiday a Vacation. Anyway....

....so I haven't posted for a while, not just because I haven't been bothered, but because for then days I've been on holiday in Menorca with my girlfriend. It was very sunny.

Nonetheless, back to karate, the only training I could really get away with while I was away was as much as I could do on the hotel balcony ( which true karateka will realise is probably quite a lot) but I'm going to have to seriously get my act together now

I've only worn my newly acquired blackbelt once since passing my shodan, so it's run tomorrow, training wednesday and then a massive weekend of training due to there being a junior Northern grading in the 12 Quays Dojo. Whenever Sensei Ernie Molyneux comes up to hold a grading there is always a private blackbelts only training session on the Friday evening at the beginning of the weekend, which means....

......I can finally attend one! So I'll basically just be training all weekend, which will be good preparation before Okinawa in July! lots of things to look forward to!

More to follow!

[inallthingsbalance]

Upper Left - Yasuhiro Konishi - Founder of Shindo Jinen Ryu Upper Right - Tatsuo Yamada - Founder of Nihon Kempo Karate Do

Lower Left - Chojun Miyagi - Founder of Goju Ryu Karate Do Lower Right - Gichin Funakoshi - Founder of Shotokan Karate Do

[mrhearty]

Me and Steven with our Sensei, Sensei Paul Nolan (7th Dan IOGKF)

Image property of Colin Gould

[mrhearty]

Success!

I probably should have posted this yesterday! After passing my grading It took about 4 hours to drive home so I was a bit knackered to say the least when I finally got back.

I passed my Shodan! I'm pretty sure that this is my greatest achievement so far, and well done to Steven and Emma who also graded and passed. Emma graded Shodan and Steven Sandan (3rd Dan for those who are non-karate) Steven has trained since he was about 8 and is now 21, he even had to regrade at 2nd dan when he moved up from junior to senior grades!

We literally did everything!

Warmup

Basics

Moving Basics

Kata

Bunkai

Chocosan

Ippon Kumite

Yakosoku Bunkai

Sanchin with Shime testing

Kumite

Hojo Undo

Bagwork/ Padwork

and to finish we had to do 100 press-ups, sit-ups and then squats.

Not a bad afternoons work. Sadly not everyone passed, the determination isn't always there for some people. I was really happy with my performance in kumite, in 6 months I've got so much fitter and that directly runs in line with the amount I've been training. 

That's all for now...I have to go and bask in jubilation haha

Picture to follow

P.S. I know I don't have that many followers but if anyone wants to ask me what any of the above bullet points are I'd be happy to oblige.

[mrhearty]

The Kenkon. Badge of the IOGKF.

[mrhearty]

This is it!

So I'm sitting in the hotel in Bournemouth (UK), nervous as hell. In an hour and a half I'm going to be training from 9AM to 12AM pad and groundwork, then I have a 20 minute registration period for my Shodan, then 20 minutes light lunch, then a 20 minute written exam on the history and lineage of Okinawan Goju Ryu and the IOGKF....

...and as if this isn't enough, then I have the three hour grading to do while observed by the chief instructor for the UK Sensei Ernie Molyneux (7th Dan IOGKF) and Sensei Roy Flatt (7th Dan IOGKF) as well as one of a possible 6 other 6th Dans. One mistake in kata is enough for you to fail because kata is condsidered so important. 

After 5 hours training yesterday...this ain't gonna be easy!

Bring it on.

[thedenimandleather-deactivated2]

I thought id share this madness with you...

my Kata training partner in karate last night was a hand and arm surgeon.

you have no fucking clue what and who people are.

& my 8th dan chief instructor from London is a wildlife photographer that enjoys classical and traditional folk music… BUT he is probably the hardest, toughest karate ka in britain with the best repp.

you can’t fuck with people anymore because one can snap your arms & your back and the other can fix it! aha

[mrhearty]

This is true.

[the-meilleur-deactivated2012082]

[mrhearty]

I appreciate that this is probably a correographed picture and thats absolutely fine but if this is genuine I would never advise anyone to block a knife in this way...

...#just saying

[mrhearty]

Prometheus

I went to see Prometheus tonight.

It was excellent.

That is all.

But seriously, the cinematography was so amazing. I'm no expert on films or anything but it seems a shame we didn't have all of the film-making technology we have now back then because with what I've seen tonight the Alien films would have been at least twice as amazing.

Ah well, its inevitable that one day some poor screenwriter will try to re-make them and fail miserably, such is life....

....and it still didn't help me get my mind off this grading.

That really is all.

[karatenisentenashi]

Okinawan master Chōjun Miyagi, founder of Goju-ryu karate.

[mrhearty]

We have his picture up in the dojo every time we train, seems like quite a standard thing in our style

[mrhearty]

Black Belt Cont.

I am becoming increasingly nervous about this grading on Sunday! There is only one more training session before the final test this weekend and after that it's literally just me against myself until Sunday.

It's as if that's it, finally after all of this training I have only 5 days until the real judgement and I'm getting really nervous now! The website for our karate association is the EGKA and it really is a very good association because its run not for profit. Which means that all of the fees it takes go towards getting the best instructors from around the world flown in to teach karate which is very beneficial!!

The EGKA is a founder member of the IOGKF which is the (International Okinawan Goju-ryu Karate Federation). The leader of the Federation being Shihan Morio Higaonna. Youtube it, he is very impressive even though he is now in his seventies. Living proof that you are never too old to train!!

All interesting if you are interested in martial arts,

Maybe in future I'll try and make posts a little bit less karate based!

More soon!

[earthlynation-blog]

Crimson Dropwing Dragonfly by Opzjon

[mrhearty]

Love this!! Don't think we have them in the UK though sadly.

[mrhearty]

Black Belt Training

I practice a fairly uncommon martial art, a type of karate, called Okinawan Goju Ryu Karate. I started training when I was about 8 years old and attained the grade of 4th Kyu (Purple Belt) when I was 12. At this point I decided that I'd rather play Rugby than do Karate because my dad does karate too and he was probably being a bit of a pushy parent, so I left ...

...Anyways, things worked out the way they always do. I quit the Rugby. When I was 17 I made the decision to go back to karate training and I did. After 6-8 months of training I re-graded to 4th Kyu and since then I have been striving towards the ultimate goal. The Black Belt.

Goju-Ryu isn't just like some more comercial forms of martial art, they don't just give belts away willy nilly, for lack of a better phrase. The grading weekend is down in Bournemouth UK on the 9/10th of June. Im already nervous. It consists of 4 hours training on the Saturday, then an hours warm up on the Sunday, followed by 3 hours actually being graded in front of the EGKA's chief instructor Sensei Ernie Molyneux as well as other high gradesof at least 6th Dan's and above. This session is finished with 100 pressups, 100 situps and 100 squats. No easy task. Then after this there is a 30 minute paper on the history of our style of karate! Hard work!

I feel ready. I'm physically quite fit and know all that will be expected of me on the day. I know that I can succeed but there is always that niggling in the back of your mind saying

"What if Sensei thinks I'm not good enough?"

Hopefully this won't be the case!

Ill keep you posted.

[mrhearty]

Hilbre Island Jaunt

I went to Hilbre Island today. It’s been really sunny on the Wirral these last few days and I decided to do something with myself (because im a student, and students don’t do anything)(especially not when its sunny). Anyway I walked the 4-5 mile round trip around Little eye and to Hilbre island from West Kirby.

It was a beautiful day, conditions were perfect and I stopped for my lunch out where the tide was at its lowest. Inquisitive seals kept on bobbing their heads up out of the surf to keep an eye on me. I think they were eyeing up my sandwich in all honesty. Anyway, the best place to stop is an old lifeboat station built from sandstone on the island which has an old slipway into the deep water which has long been washed away. Rumour has it there was a great storm in the 1920’s which pulled the place apart and that was the result.

I decided to go back a different way from usual and I found the front axle of what looked like a very old tractor of some sort with the engine block still attached but well bedded into the sand. You would literally need a small crane to move it. I thought It’d make a nice picture but sadly I only had my blackberry with me and the camera is terrible. I took one all the same.

Walking further up the far side of the island takes you to a large cave which has been eroded into the rock known locally as Lady Cave. There are many versions to the story of Lady cave but the one I was told as a child was that there was a young Welsh girl who was to be taken on a boat from Chester (further up the River Dee) to go overseas and complete her arranged marriage. The story goes that the young girl was no discontented with life that she threw herself from the bow of the ship. Her body was washed up on Hilbre and the monks residing there at the time placed her body in Lady Cave as there was no place to bury it, with the island being made of solid rock. 

All stories aside, the allure of Hilbre island is undeniable and tourists are constantly flocking to go there. I’ve overheard people saying on sunny days like today “you could be anywhere in the world” and its probably true.

Sorry again for the poor picture quality!

[mrhearty]

First Post

So here it is, the dreaded first post. Kind of strange really considering i'm basically just writing in my own head and it isn't really aimed at any specific kind of audience. I'm currently following such an aclectic range of bloggers that i don't currently know where to go with all of this! Anything from art history to architecture to insects. I'm a regular kind of guy, just a 20 year old male from the UK.

I think perhaps that's what has drawn me to Tumblr in the first place. It's as if the world is massive, and wherever you go on the internet you are constantly reminded of that, for example on youtube where its constantly asking you to verify your location so they can filter your content. Even google, although it doesn't ask you directly, seems to take your location and then tailor everything to you with regards to adverts etc.

Tumblr doesn't seem to do any of this. It's like you're on here so anyone and everyone is your neighbour, no matter where they're from.

I like that.

[saddest-summer]

You’re always haunted by the idea you’re wasting your life.

Chuck Palahniuk (via hellomynameiswill)