My Karate Journey: The Okinawan Seibukan Days..
November 21, 2020 Leave a comment
Hello Friends, In this blog I would like to give a glimpse of my Karate Journey and the Seibukan style of traditional Karate. My Karate Journey actually started on 2015 after marriage in a DoJo named Budo Academy at Kakkanad, Kochi in Kerala , India. The Dojo was run by the Iqbal brothers who are well established Karate black belts with strong base of multiple Karate training facilities in UAE. Karate has multiple flavors and the version of Karate that was taught in Budo Academy was Shorin-ryu Seibukan which is one of the oldest and traditional Karate Style that was originated in the Birth place of Karate i.e Okinawa in Japan. The Karate classes are scheduled 4 days a week i.e Tuesday, Thursday evening on week days and Saturday , Sunday morning on Weekends.
Initial Days
The Seibukan style of Karate training begins with correcting the Stances and various poses which sets the base that is essential when entering higher stages of the Karate training.
Along with learning stances, we are put in a group of Karate trainees practicing for a longer time with higher karate belts. This is the opportunity to merge to a group of team along with slowly learning the stances and next level of movements. Most of the stances and movements are named in Japanese terms which will get used to slowly over the course of training.
The stages of Karate is categorized in terms of belts wherein for acquiring every higher belt , will need to attend a test in front of a certified Sensei(instructor). Each test has clear written syllabus of various movements and terms which needs to be demonstrated and answered during the test.
The Karate belt categories begins from White belt (Beginner) to Black belt. There are various levels of Black belts beginning from 1st Dan to 10th Dan. Zenryo Shimabukuro is the founder of Shorin-ryu Seibukan karate who is in turn a 10th Dan black belt of the Seibukan Karate style.
Below is the set of Belts I have acquired over 3 years of rigorous training and tests before moving to USA for Work in 2017 December.
Katas of Seibukan is an integral part of this art which is combination of various stances , movements , kicks and punches. I was able to learn 6 Kata’s in a good way beginning from Fukyugata Ichi to Wansu . However once you acquire higher levels of training there are difficult sets of Kata’s that needs to be learned and demonstrated for the tests.
Please refer below url’s for more different styles of Kata’s and about the Seibukan Karate style.
There are two more interesting arts in seibukan i.e Ippon Kumite and Weapon training .
Ippon kumite teaches various techniques for self defense and handling attacks. A good training of Ippon kumite techniques improves our reflexes and movements comes automatically during a sudden attack. The base of good stances and Kata training is needed to get expertized on Ippon Kumite techniques.
When it comes to Weapon training there is a whole list of devastating weapons that is trained in seibukan version of Karate. I was a able to receive beginner level of training on weapons like Bo , Nanjak , Tonfa. There are Kata’s defined for each weapon moves which makes us well versed with the usage of these weapons.
Karate training have really helped in my personal and professional life to stay focused and motivated in getting things done at a faster pace. This is an excellent art which can be learned from Childhood that sows seeds of discipline in us for Life Long. Even now when I get opportunity, I never misses the time to practice some of the Kata’s and stances which I have learned. This helps activate my memory since I am repeating a sequence of steps that was learned some years ago.
Having completed the certification program and proper poc’s on IOT, my knowledge base on computer hardware technology and IOT have improved to a good extent and I was able to generate thought process for Ideation in this area.
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