My new invention: the mobile makiwara. I’ve been without my makiwara post since I move out of New Farm last September, and I sure miss it.  I’ve been pondering how to make a new one I can use in the dojo in Bulimba and at home. I found just the right board washed up on [...]

Friday was the “class of 1,000 punches”.  We had a small class, but everyone completed the punches in the hour. Good stuff!

I was revved up and ready for the class this afternoon.  We worked hard and the sweat was righteous.  I’m really enjoying having the new students in the class, and seeing the more experienced students step up their efforts as the newbies watch them. The Senpai had a great observation about the “Shoshin o wasurezu [...]

My senior student and I trained together on the beach this morning.  It was a bit windy and the extra motion added a bit of intensity to the usually calm beach experience. We did a bit of a warm up, then concentrated on some of the pilates core strengthening routines he’s using to rehabilitate a [...]

It felt like a ‘full house’ at the dojo today.  With the two new white belts and my senior student back from his business trip, we had a nice size class to split into two groups to do basic and intermediate techniques.  That keeps me busy, but I still managed to spend most of the [...]

We had a great kumite class yesterday – no real injuries, lots of bruises! The green belts are really starting to come into form.  I can see their relaxation during the fight now, not just a wild flurry, but some considered striking.  The young brown belt is really getting the hang of this, he was [...]

Training this morning was a bit unusual – I packed my camera and tripod to get a few pictures of the beach training.  The sky was overcast to the North, so I shot down the beach toward the port of Brisbane in the background. The strip of sand inspired me to practice my Naihanchi kata… [...]

A storm front rolled through around 6 am, and as I put my gi on, I thought about my stock answer when they ask the inevitable question after I tell people we train on the beach in the morning; “what do you do when it rains?” I tell them, “We get wet.” The rain had [...]