December 22nd, 2013

From Sensei Barnes Denshi, Shihan, Shichi Dan

Ueshiro Shorin-Ryu Karate USA

IT FELT RIGHT

Two Weeks Ago We Black Belts gathered in Palisades NY,

To Celebrate Hanshi's 75th Birthday & Ueshiro Shorin Ryu 51st Birthday.

Arigato to Kyoshi Seeger for organizing an amazing week-end, it was like being

at a Clandestine Military Covert Martial Arts Retreat hidden in the woods of Nyack.

It was truly Amazing or to borrow a legendary quote from Hanshi..Very High Level!.

It was at this event I personally had an epiphany; An epiphany is an experience of sudden and striking realization.

Generally the term is used to describe scientific breakthrough, religious or philosophical discoveries,

an enlightening realization allows a problem or situation to be understood from a new and deeper perspective.

Hanshi has used many phrases that have become mantra for us all, The Most Famous .."Just Do It", which later became the Nike advertisement slogan

, how coincidental at the same time the ad agency team that devised that campaign, were Midtown Karate Deshi (TRUE)

But when Hanshi bellowed "IF IT FEELS RIGHT"....I had a striking realization a spiritual, philosophical enlightening realization.

Weeks prior I took a Tuesday Kyoshi Mackay Midtown Class, Now Kyoshi Mackay was one of my primary Sempai and then Sensei

when I was a green and Brown belt coming up the ranks, his technique is flawless and it always has been. After several minimal corrections

(yes i said several and minimal) ...IT FELT RIGHT. The Muscle Memory of over Thirty Years of Training LOCKED IN, and it FELT RIGHT with the specific correction,

Now I wasn't that far off with the technique..But an inch & a half rotation of the wrist, 1/2 an inch of placing the heel, 3 inches raising the knee

.....AND IT FELT RIGHT.

O.K let me digress for a moment...when I was a young buck green belt walking to class in NYC, with my bag over my shoulder I would walk briskly

standing erect, with a warrior gate, ALWAYS snapping double chest blocks, or cracking a shuto strike in the cold gotham air, and IT FELT RIGHT.

Some Thirty Years Later..I am once again walking cross town with my bag over my shoulder, walking erect, brisk and snapping, cracking and whipping techniques in the hussle and bussle of New York City Street traffic,AND IT FEELS RIGHT ! And when it FEELS RIGHT...Your body responds,

Your Body Craves the stimulus of.."FEELING RIGHT"

UESHIRO SHORIN RYU KARATE offers THE FEEL RIGHT Phenomenon, To acquire it , you need to suit up and show up, and then really hear your Sensei and MAKE the Correction,

Lock It In and Repitition of Corrected technique will become muscle memory and from Then on it will...FEEL RIGHT!

If we are on The deck together and you hear me yell out..IT FEELS RIGHT HANSHI!...just understand I'm in a state of Bliss, in the place where courage is fostered and superior human nature is bred through the ecstasy of sweating in hard work.

Arigato KYOSHI MACKAY and SEEGER for Big New York Spirit

ARIGATO HANSHI for Worldwide Spirit.

Sensei Barnes Denshi, Shihan, Shichi Dan
P.S IF NIKE LAUNCHES A NEW AD CAMPAIGN USING THE PHRASE .."IT FEELS RIGHT"
.............YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST...DOMO ARIGATO!!!