Author: David Chan

First class at Okikukai Headquarters

~ David Chan ~ 2 Comments

This is a picture of my first Karate class at Okikukai Headquarters. I did not participate in class, but I had the honor to sit and talk with Okikukai vice president Arakaki Sensei as we watched the class.

Yamashiro Sensei lead the first class to a group of mostly European students that just arrived on the island earlier that day. It was a very interesting sight for me at the time, because I had never seen a traditional Okinawan karate class being conducted. All of my karate class experiences has been from America and I only wondered how different the classes may be conducted in Okinawa. To my delight, many of the school (dojo) etiquette and beginning class formalities are very similar to what I had been taught in America. I did find that Yamashiro Sensei did have a different teaching style and different way of implementing basic exercises.

As I sat with Arakaki Sensei watching the class, sensei was very helpful in communicating what was happening during the class.

Fists, Bats, Knives, and Guns….

~ David Chan ~ 9 Comments

Currently I am conducting research and study of different weapons used in different attacks. The results of these attacks are used for many purposes. I have specifically looked at  how the results of attacks have been used in martial arts and self-defense instructions. My initial findings have been very interesting.

Knife Fighting?

~ David Chan ~ 3 Comments

What should a modern martial artist know about knife fighting? With modern day violence and crimes, there may be possibilities of knife threats. I wonder what is the percentage of people getting hurt or killed by a knife from all the hand to hand combats that has occurred all over the world?

Do we need Physical Fitness training in Martial Arts instruction?

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Some people say you need to be physically fit before you start taking martial arts classes (i.e. Karate), but some people say you take martial arts classes to become physically fit. There are many schools of thought. One thought believes that martial arts instruction should be up to the individuals’ desire to seek deep martial arts instruction, so the group classes are conducted with vigorous physical fitness exercises with small elements of martial arts techniques. The other school of thought believes that it is up to the individual to take initiative to conduct physical fitness training on their own time and that attending martial arts classes is for the main purpose of learning martial arts techniques. I think that both views are valid, what do you think?

Just enrolled in ISSA

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In recent  years I have felt I needed more in my physical fitness training. With the strength and conditioning training that  accompanied martial arts was not enough for me. A few years ago I started to take weight lifting sessions from a professional personal trainer and that kicked off my interest in physical fitness. I felt that weight lifting was a great compliment to martial arts training, even though my intentions was not to gain massive amounts of muscle, but I felt the needs of developing all muscle groups was deemed necessary for physical fitness even for the martial artist. After my enlistment to the United States military, made me realize that physical fitness is a big part to a healthy lifestyle, especially for a soldier.

After some research I have decided to enroll in ISSA’s personal trainer certification course. It looked like the best option for me as a current deployed soldier in the middle-east. The course is self paced which will allow me to take all the time that I need and test for certification online. I hope that this course will further my martial arts, stay tune to see what happens.