Category: sport

Rise

I am not very keen of sportsmen/women biographies but I decided to read this one, after watching this video some time ago.

Although Siya is still young, he relates about his career from a very challenging upbringing to the summit of his sport career.

But what I liked from the book, it is not just the path to success but the persona. How he relates to the problems of South Africa, to his own personal problems. In a very macho sport, it is difficult to imagine somebody talking about his feelings, his wrongs, his addictions. This is another very interesting video about mental heath issues from a “big boy”.

As he shows in the book, he found help in his wife and faith. And admits he is not perfect.

There is a important point about success and values. It is more important to be a well-rounded person than a top rugby player. But we live in a society/world that we only focus in the best, the winner (who takes all) And those are the values we give to kids. As a famous coach said, the result takes care by itself. That means, if you put the work .

You would expect the book would finish in his top achievement but not, if follows with what it is really important to him, make a different in the society. From supporting campaigns against violence to women (and it is not just a problem in SA, we had similar problem in Spain) and setup the kolisifoundation.

IronFit

I finished this book this week. I was interested how you can prepare for an IronMan or a normal triathlon. I like to have a training plan for different levels of commitment. And the planning for the race itself. I have learned some tips to improve in the three sports. At some point I would like to try a triathlon (I need to join a swim gym and get a heart meter). My only concern for a bigger challenge is the left knee. But, step by step.

Madrid-Indoor-Climbing

One guy told me some time ago that Chris Sharma was going to open a climbing gym in Madrid but until this week I didnt see any news about it (I never looked for it to be honest). So I am quite impressed and I would love to try it one day (if we can travel and lead a normal life…)

Okinawa

I have remembering my Karate for nearly the last two months. It has been a quite satisfying choice and has brought some good and old feelings.

As I have been adding katas to my set, I wanted to write and find some info in the web about the origin of Karate (and see if it matches my memory) and the main kata stiles I learned in my time. Not sure if it is still the same though.

I think for my black belt exam, apart from performing some katas in front of my teacher, I had to answer some questions about Karate history.

I dont know why, I can still remember bodhidharma, and Indian Buddhist monk, as the person considered for starting martial arts in Asia. Then it spread to southern China and then to Okinawa. There, it developed while some King forbade weapons so people needed other ways for self-defence. And finally, get to Japan after some conquering. Yeah, very short summary. Surely a better version here.

From my time, we had three stiles of “superior” katas: shuri-te, naha-te and tomari-te. I can’t forget the big picture of Gichin Funakoshi (Father of modern karate) in our tatami.

We used to consider naha-te katas the ones with a lot of “breathing” and “slow moves”. Katas with short and quick moves, were tomari-te katas.

And by chance, I was lucky to visit Okinawa (just for a weekend) when I was working in a project in Tokyo. It was a dream come true. Although I was expecting some spirituality there, I was lucky to attend a very important festival and laugh when some towns in the map where actually kata names!

Definitely, it is a very different place compared with Japan main islands.

Shito Ryu – Remembering

Somehow today while working out at home, paid attention to my old black belt and crossed my mind that I could try to remember some of my old Karate. It has been a long time since I donned my kimono and I am supper rusty but I did it. It was really special, so many old memories. I remembered how to wear it and how to put the belt! So many years grinning have paid off 🙂

I was pretty sure I could find videos of my Karate style Shito Rye in Youtube and quickly found a good one:

https://youtu.be/_BUqaOb8Gbo

Funny enough I could remember most of the moves. So my goal it is to practice a bit every day.

Update:

I have been practising all lock-down weeks so I am quite happy. Adding new katas:

Shito-Ryu Kata – Juroku
Shito-Ryu Kata – Myojo
Shito-Ryu Kata – Bassai Dai
Shito-Ryu Kata – Rohai
Shito-Ryu Kata – Nipaipo

Shito-Ryu Kata – Matsukaze

Shito-Ryu Kata – Wanshu
Shito-Ryu Kata – Saifa