February 26th , 2017

This week's thought is from Emiliano Mazlen, Go-Dan
Shihan, Boston Chinatown Ueshiro Shorin-Ryu Karate Club
Ueshiro Shorin-Ryu Karate USA

Avoiding Injury During Training

Onegai-shimasu Hanshi, Kyoshi, Denshi, Shihan, Sensei and Fellow Deshi,

We should seek to avoid injuring ourselves in training.
While this may seem obvious, there are many aspects to it and I will focus here on one – we do not strike vulnerable parts of our own bodies with force. There are moves, especially in some of the higher-level kata, that call for some contact between one part of the body (generally part of an arm or leg) and another part (also generally part of an arm or leg). The aspect of the move that involves contact with your own body, but those moves should not be done with force that might cause injury. While we train parts of the forearms in arm-training, other parts of the arm (such as the inside of the forearm) and parts of the legs (such as the insides of the thighs) contain vulnerable points that we should not strike on ourselves with power. Avoiding self-injury will, among other things, allow us at full capacity to...Keep Training.

Domo arigato gozaimasu to all.
Emiliano Mazlen
Go-Dan
Shihan, Boston Chinatown Ueshiro Shorin-Ryu Karate Club