You don’t quit karate because of age, you age because you quit karate

February Dojo Kun

Doryoku no seishin o yashinau koto Cultivate a spirit of effort and perseverance

2012 CLINICS Hanbojutsu Clinic* -to be rescheduled at a later date.

Tsue-Kioga Clinic* - to be rescheduled at a later date at the Hombu Mesa, Arizona

Utah Shorin-Kai/Arizona Hombu Training (April 12th

-14th

). Some members from our affiliate association

(Utah Shorin-Kai) will fly from Murray to Phoenix to train at the Hombu. Training will include Friday

evening (6:30-8:30 pm) and Saturday (11 am–3 pm). All students of the Arizona Hombu are invited to

train with our Utah members. The Utah affiliates are also invited to train with us Thursday evening if

they arrive in Phoenix early.

Utah Gasshuku – August 4th

, 2012, East Canyon Lodge. Annual Outdoor training for Seiyo Kai and

Utah Shorin-Kai (contact Sensei Watson (shorinkai@msn.com) or Sensei Stoneking

(senseistoneking@sisna.com) for information on camping and training at this clinic. * A minimum of 8 people are required to preregister for these clinics.

Makiwara A few members recently asked about training with heavy bags vs makiwara. Personally, I don’t like

heavy bags as they tend to respond to force in an unnatural way. They pivot along an axis attached to

an overhead chain or rope, just exactly the opposite of striking a person whose feet would be on the

ground and pivot along an axis attached to the earth. But there are bags available that have water-filled

bases that tend to take care of this problem, but essentially every one that I’ve tested have been cheaply

constructed with very thin padding. So if you go this route, I would highly recommend checking the

padding.

BUSHIDO - THE WAY OF THE WARRIOR

SEIYO no SHORIN-RYU KARATE KOBUDO KAI

February, 2012 W. Dan Hausel, Soke & Eric J. Hausel, Soke-Dai v.9, no.2

Newsletter of

SEIYO SHORIN-RYU HOMBU

Okinawan karate-ka developed an

excellent tool in place of a heavy bag that

doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. All you have

to do is go to your local lumber or

hardware store and buy a few materials to

build one, dig a hole, and ‘walla’ – you’ll

have a makiwara.

The makiwara can be constructed using a

board about 10 feet long. However, the

Arizona soils (if we can call them soil) are

filled with so much clay, caliche and ash

that they are very hard to dig in. So you can

get away with an 8-foot board (which is

what I did when I planted my makiwara in

the back yard of our house). I used 2x8 inch and 2x12 inch boards in

Wyoming. But this time, I went for a thinner board (1x8 inch) and

was surprised that I liked the thinner board much better because of its greater flexibility.

After you purchase a board, take your 8-foot board and dig a

3-foot hole. Now go and find two large rocks while resting

from trying to break through the layer of caliche in the Arizona

soil. If you are in Colorado, Utah or Wyoming (or anywhere

else in the US except maybe New Mexico), you might want to

get a 10-foot board and plant it 5 feet deep. I’m not sure what

to recommend for members in Alaska or Canada other than

wait for summer weather before you plant your board and get

an ice pick to break though permafrost.

Now that you have a hole for your makiwara, place the board

to the appropriate depth and take two large football-sized rocks

placing one in front of your board at the bottom of the hole.

Now fill in the hole and when it is nearly full, place the other

rock on the opposite side (in the back). The rocks will provide

spring to the board. Now go buy some hemp rope from a local

hardware store and get some pieces of carpet. These are for

padding. We found hemp at Harbor Freight in Mesa and be

sure to tell them what it is for. The hemp is great for training

knuckles and side of your hand.

Next, place pieces of carpet under the hemp to increase the

padding. When your knuckles get use to striking the board,

you can remove some carpet pieces. Ideally, you will want to

practice tsuki, shuto, koko and empi uchi along with mae geri,

maewashi geri, yoko geri, kozumi geri and other kicks. Now

you have an excellent tool to supplement your karate training at home and drive your neighbors nuts

(they’ll love peaking through their curtains and wondering what is wrong with you). At first, it will be

difficult to hit the board with a lot of force with your bare knuckles; but after months of training, you

will look forward to hitting the board full force. When it breaks (the board, not your hand), buy another.

Promotions Congratulations to our members who were promoted in rank. The following members tested for rank

and demonstrated excellent proficiency in martial arts at their rank level: Adam Bialek was promoted

to 7th

kyu (blue belt), Dave Hargreaves to 7th

kyu (blue belt), Lou Ferzacca to 6th

kyu (blue belt),

Patrick Scofield to 6th

kyu (blue belt), Brandon Brown to 6th

kyu (blue belt), Charles Jean to 5th

kyu

(green belt), Chase Cassidy to 2nd

kyu (brown belt). Brandon and Chase are from the Gillette dojo.

Photo showing some

of our promoted

members including

(back row) Sensei

Paula Borea and

Sensei Bill Borea (3rd

and 4th

from the left)

and (front row) Adam,

Dave, Lou, Patrick

and Charles (2nd

, 3rd

,

5th

, 6th

and 7th

from

the left).

In the photo below,

Sarah is standing in

the back, 2nd

from the

right. (see more photos

of our students at the

end of the newsletter).

The following

awards were

presented at the

Hombu dojo.

Sarah Kamenicky

came to us from

another school in

Texas where she

held the rank of nidan. She has now been training with us for several months and reached the level of

nidan in Shorin-Ryu and was presented certification in Shorin-Ryu karate.

Bill and Paula Borea have helped out at our dojo since it opened and are assisting in our classes and

periodically run classes when Shihan Adam and myself cannot be present. Their assistance is very

much appreciated and keeps our doors open 12 months a year. Both were presented Sensei

certifications. Sensei certifications are usually reserved for members who reach the level of sandan, or

black belts who open a dojo. Bill, Paula and Sarah will now be training for sandan over the next few

years.

Matsuri Festival The Matsuri Festival is scheduled for Phoenix on February 25

th and 26

th. Matsuri is a local Japanese

festival and many are held in Japan.

Tameshiwara As the sun rises higher and higher, it will reach a point that it will be daylight during our evening

classes. When this happens, it will be time to learn tameshiwara: the art of breaking!

When I started training in karate, most people in the

US were of the impression this was the primary

function of karate and jujutsu. In reality, it is a very

minor part of karate and is practiced to assist in

development of self-confidence. Many schools

today use rebreakable boards, but being that I’m a

geologist, there are plenty rocks out there willing to

assist us. So, I have a bag of rocks I picked up from

the Salt River flood plain that we will attempt to

break. I picked rocks of all different sizes, so this

will be a fun sunlit night for us.

Tameshimara photos – (Clockwise) I introduce University of

Wyoming karate club members to Geology 101 (breaking

rocks). The rocks were collected adjacent to the University of

Wyoming and are specimens of limestone (Mother Nature’s

concrete). Everyone broke a rock that day! This page

(clockwise). Old photo of me using my head at a

demonstration in Las Cruces (breaking Mexican roofing

tiles). At some demonstrations at UW, I used large blocks of limestone and sandstone from the University of Wyoming

quarry. George Chakmakian, 1st dan, takes his first geology exam outside of the Education Building Gym.

This page, Eric Hausel, Soke-Dai, picks on large chunk of limestone at the University of Wyoming. Donette Gillespie

breaks rocks in front of Laramie Bushido Dojo in downtown Laramie as a white belt. Donette retired from the UW dojo

years later as a sandan and moved to Alaska.

Hombu News The Hombu changed its class schedule which is displayed

on our websites. Our new Shorin-Ryu schedule follows (for

the Tai Chi Academy schedule, visit our website): When I am

not teaching, I will either be training by myself, or searching

for gold and gemstones.

Tuesdays

6:45-7:50 pm Shorin-Ryu Karate Basics & Kata

7:50-8:20 pm Advanced Shorin-Ryu Kata & Applications

Wednesdays

3-4 pm Family Shorin-Ryu Karate & Kobudo

4-5 pm Shorin-Ryu Kids Karate (by invitation only).

6:45-7:50 pm Shorin-Ryu Self-Defense & Jujutsu.

7:50-8:20 pm Samurai Arts

Thursdays

6:45-7:50 pm Shorin-Ryu Kobudo (weapons).

7:50-8:20 pm Advanced Kobudo & Applications.

Honbo Clinic HANBO CLINIC (半棒). When I taught martial arts

(karate, kobudo, self-defense and jujutsu) at the

University of Wyoming Campus Shorin-Ryu Karate

and Kobudo Club, we had a much larger group.

Typically about 100 members a year. There were a

few years when I was also teaching classes in the

Department of Physical Education and Department

of Kinesiology, we had as many as 200 to 250 a year. As a result, we periodically held clinics on a

variety of martial arts at the Sandan School of Traditional Martial Arts in Saratoga as well as at the

Education Building Gym and Corbett Gym at the University. It will take serious effort, but the

University Club can again become a major martial arts center in the US.

The clinics were put together so that our students could be introduced to a variety of other martial arts

that we seldom have time to cover in our regular classes. After our students took these clinics, they later

tested for certification in various arts and weapons that they later used for yudansha exams. I am

willing to teach these kinds of clinics again in Arizona, but we will need to get enough members

attending the clinics. If anyone would like to assist and organize these clinics, we can schedule these

for some Saturdays. We also had a great time training all day on Saturday, and the price can’t be beat.

The hanbo would be a great first clinic as this is one of my favorites and works well with follow-up

clinics with the kioga (keibo or ASP police tactical weapon), tsue (cane), nitanbo (two batons), jujutsu

and manrikigusari (chain), as these all employ several similar waza. In a hanbo clinic, members have

the opportunity to learn 2 to 3 dozen waza including strikes, blocks, throws, chokes, restraints and

pressure point strikes.

Hanbo (known as a half-bo) techniques include simple strikes and blocks and more complex throws

and chokes that were initially developed against samurai with armor. Attendees at past clinics learned

basic strikes, blocks and stances with many self-defense bunkai (applications) and ippon kumite (one

step attacks) against unarmed and armed assailants. In the past, we also trained in kumite (controlled

sparring) against a variety of attacks. Shihan Neal Adam created a hanbo kata filled with pragmatic

techniques that he agreed to teach at such a clinic. This is the only hanbo kata that I know of.

TSUE & KIOGA CLINIC. A combination of Tsue (cane) also known as Jou or Kuai and Kioga also known

as a Keibo (telescoping tactical police baton) are also two great martial weapons - the cane in particular

is an excellent weapon as it can be carried anywhere in the US. These would provide a great follow-up

clinic to the hanbo.

Funakoshi Let Neko Out of the Bag Anku Itosu and Gichin Funakoshi already let the cat (neko) out of the

bag. They told everyone about Okinawan Karate so it’s no longer a

secret. Please don’t keep us a secret either. Bring a friend, family

member or co-worker to visit our Shorin-Ryu family. Please also forward

a copy of our newsletter to an associate and we would appreciate anyone

making copies and distributing a few.

The cats (err raccoons) are out of the bag.

Seiyo Kai Membership Dues Membership dues for Seiyo No Shorin-Ryu Karate Kobudo Kai are due

by February 15th

to keep from missing future newsletters and clinic

discounts. Mail to Soke Hausel, Seiyo No Shorin-Ryu Karate Kobudo Kai, 1053 W. Cantebria Dr.,

Gilbert, AZ 85233. Dues are $35 for first year members, and $20/year thereafter.

Links Shorin-Ryu History Blog International Martial Arts Center The Arizona Hombu

Man of Year Nomination Kids Karate Karate Anniversary

Japanese archery Traditional Karate dojo Az Traditional Karate

Self-Defense Gilbert Karate Yelp

Karate Stances Karate Tournaments Airline Self-Defense

Judo Arizona Kobudo Sai

Jujutsu Kama Tonfa

Karate Philosophy Demos Interview

Mushin Training memories Nunchaku

Physics and Karate Bojutsu Karate Icons

Karate Clinics Seiyo Kai Shorin-Ryu Adult Karate Classes

Self Defense Hanbo Hombu

Arizona Karate Official site of Seiyo Kai Traditional Okinawan Karate

Yahoo ASU news Seiyo Wiki

Merchant Circle Merchant Circle 2 Merchant Circle 3

Thumbtack UW Hotfrog

Karate Information Manta Manta2

Naginata Meikyo-Rohai Kata Secrets of Karate

Mesa Karate Gilbert Karate Tai Chi Academy

Follow Us on Facebook

Photos

Photos-Left, Shihan-Dai Kyle Gewecke tolls two

volunteers during Shitai Kori at the Gillette clinic.

Above, Kyle assists Hanshi Finley by choking him

during body hardening clinic.

Above left (Chase Cassidy accepts knuckle punch during Gillette Clinic). Center photo (Brandon Brown

trains in kenjutsu in Gillette). Right photo (Nate Cina kicks Chase in stomach during body hardening clinic).

Below (members of Utah Shorin-Kai train at hombu dojo in 2011.