Karate 4 Life
Martin & Sandra Phillips
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Shihan Martin Phillips & Shihan Sandra Phillips share inspiration and insights based on their what they've learned from over 65 years combined experience in the dojo.
Don't be confused, this podcast is not just about karate, it's about what sharing ideas ideas that can help you live your best life.
Everyone faces challenges in life, some big some small, but not everyone has a way to navigate these problems.
It’s not always easy, but they've found that they always keep coming back to what they've learned from years in the dojo.
And that’s what this podcast is about!
Helping us all find the solutions to life’s problems… Or even better yet, to remove the problems before they arise.
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Nov 29, 2020
Basic #4 – RIKI （力）Technique/Power
In the episode we going to wrap up our mini-series about ichi gan, ni soku, san tan, shi riki as we take a deeper look into the forth and final element riki: technique & power.
The forth element, is literally power, but is often referred to as technique. This alludes to the fact that real power is created from correct technique, rather than physical strength.
This final principle relies on the correct application of the preceding principles first, without proper use of eyes, legs & attitude, the opportunity to generate natural power through correct technique is lost. ---- Transcript ----
Martin: Hey everyone, this is Martin & Sandra Phillips and welcome back to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: Today we want to dig a bit deeper into the basics of karate and life...
Martin: ...taking a closer look at the forth and final element of ichi gan, ni soku, san tan, shi riki - technique and power.
We've noticed that everyone faces challenges in life, some big some small. But not everyone has a way to navigate these problems.
Sandra: It’s not always easy, but we’ve found that we always keep coming back to what we’ve learned from our years in the dojo.
Martin: And that’s what this podcast is all about...
Sandra: Helping us all find the solutions to life’s problems. Or even better yet, to remove the problems before they arise.
Martin: This is Martin & Sandra Phillips and welcome to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: Getting a bit excited today, Martin, as we come to a close with our Ichi Gan Ni Soku San Tan Shi Riki series. How are you feeling about this?
Martin: It's really good to get it wrapped up. It's been a bit of a mission, hasn't it, to get through all of these? It's quite a lot of ground we've covered.
Sandra: There's been some great feedback though. It's really been helping some people in their dōjō but also in their lives as well. We're learning that quite a few people are also having chats with their kids about this sort of stuff.
Martin: Yes, it's really good to see how especially the parents, they listen to this and they take it in themselves as the parents of the training course, they take it in themselves and they're sharing with their kids and it's creating a bit of a conversation point. This is what we're doing this for in the first place is to hopefully get a bit of that happening.
Sandra: Yes, it's fantastic, isn't it? Well, look, let's just get ourselves moving into this last episode for this particular series and see how we go.
Martin: Ichi Gan Ni Soku San Tan Shi Riki. What's the saying Soke's Kyohon (Soke's teaching manual)?
Sandra: We have Riki is technique. "Through diligent training of Kata and Kumite, technique will develop naturally."
Now I know this disturbs you just a little bit. Do you want to share why it disturbs you certainly it gets you questioning?
Martin: I'm always a little bit disturbed by this but it's okay, that's a good thing.
Sandra: It gets you thinking deeply.
Martin: It makes me think and I love that, I love that. Again, the character that's used to describe this Riki is literally power and yet in that description there, there's no description of power at all and I asked myself that question if the character says power, why are we not talking about power? This is technique, we're talking about technique. I did come up with a bit of an answer to this but I don't know you....
Sandra: Yes, but I mean we're having a chat a bit earlier as well and we both reflected on our journeys. We both agreed that when we first started our training, we focused on trying to be really powerful and being strong.
Martin: That's the mistake that everybody makes, if the focus is on power, yes through the process of developing good technique you will generate natural power and that's the goal. If you focus on developing power, most people will misinterpret that and think physical strength which is the opposite of what we're trying to do. As we say in training we see so many people far more advanced than us that are able to generate incredible power and yet they have such small bodies.
Sandra: It's a very natural power, isn't it?
Martin: Yes, natural power and that's the way I like to describe it, looking at natural power as opposed to physical strength.
Sandra: Yes and so this power I guess in our training and as you've just said we have people who are way ahead of us doing this. We're quite young on our journeys really with this but in our experience so far, we can both say that once we flipped it on the head and we stopped focusing on trying to be powerful and we went back to Ichi Gan Ni Soku San Tan and we went through that process, and we layered that continually over and over and over again, going deeper and deeper, we naturally found more power.
Martin: Through the practice and study of technique. I guess that's why this fourth one, one way that I'll have this described to me that Shi Riki, the fourth element being technique is all those little things that make things work.
Sandra: When you get back into life, it's the little things in life which make a big difference. If you do them.
Martin: Yes, that's one that you love to talk about all the time.
Sandra: I do when it comes to you.
Martin: What are you trying to say?
Sandra: No, it's good. For those who are listening and who of course do practice karate, for our personal experiences and we can only speak for ourselves of course. If you do move forward with your journey and you have experienced the thought of, "I just want to be more powerful and get more physically stronger," and you trained with that mindset, it'll only get you so far potentially.
Martin: You'll hit a wall really really quickly.
Sandra: There's a ceiling on that.
Martin: You'll hit your limit. That's why we're going, as I say, through that process, go through those elements. First, the eyes Ichi Gan, second is stance Ni Soku, San tan, develop that spirit, that guts and determination and then we will get the technique which is getting your body in the right position.
Sandra: Don't you think the most exciting thing of this, is it just me? I love application. When you go through this cycle time and time again, you go deeper. Ichi Gan Ni Soku San Tan and Shi Riki you get more effective in your application in being able to do your application while I guess all different bodies. For me, that's quite exciting. How about you?
Martin: Yes, absolutely. That's the thing I love about partner training application is when you first start to try and teach someone how to do some self-defence techniques, for example, when you see a beginner trying to do it, first thing you see is they're just trying to use their arms to do all the work. Then you realise, "Okay, the condo got the idea, they've got the general form of it," but how effective is it really until you start to look at these elements of how do you move your body? How do you align your body? How do you position yourself? How do you use your stunts? How do you use your eyes?
When you put all those elements together, you're able to make things work, like you were saying before, in an effortless way.
Sandra: It's quite beautiful, isn't it? You're doing things and it's like, "How did that actually work?" It will amaze you when it first happens to you. Would you agree?
Martin: Yes, it is. That's the thing I love about partner training is so many times of having being both on the receiving end and the giving end, if somebody is throwing you to the floor, they barely touched you, and you're looking up from the floor and going, "How the heck did I just get there?" You've hit the ground really hard.
Sandra: Yes, it's funny. I don't know who said this to me on my journey many, many years ago. They said to me that if you have to try hard to throw somebody or to try hard to do a punch, it's a good chance of doing it incorrectly. But if you feel the punch just happens with no force and it's effortless and it just flows as with thro…
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Nov 25, 2020
Basic #3 – TAN （胆 ）Grit/Determination
In the episode we continue going deeper into ichi gan, ni soku, san tan, shi riki as we take a deeper look into the third tan power: grit, determination, guts, tenacity, an indomitable spirit that won’t back down.
Sometimes you just have to ask yourself the question,
"How bad to you want it?"
Technique alone won't win you a fight or get you out of a tough situation.
We've seen it so many times in competition, the best fighters don't always win. It's not just about your speed, power, technique or even how well you understand the strategy of the game.
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog." ---- Transcript ----
Martin: Hey everyone, this is Martin & Sandra Phillips and welcome back to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: Today we want to dig a bit deeper into the basics of karate and life, taker a closer look at the third element of ichi gan, ni soku, san tan, shi riki - grit & determination.
Martin: We've noticed that everyone faces challenges in life, some big some small. But not everyone has a way to navigate these problems.
Sandra: It’s not always easy, but we’ve found that we always keep coming back to what we’ve learned from our years in the dojo.
Martin: And that’s what this podcast is all about...
Sandra: Helping us all find the solutions to life’s problems. Or even better yet, to remove the problems before they arise.
Martin: This is Martin & Sandra Phillips and welcome to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: Moving forward Martin today, we are moving on to San Tan but I dare say without Ichi Gan Ni Soku, this won't be all that much fun.
Martin: Yes, there's a reason this is number three. Although it's incredibly powerful and it can carry you a long way forward, I think it definitely worked best when you've got those foundations of the first two elements in place.
Sandra: I guess Ichi Gan Ni Soku tend to I guess, position yourself, prepare yourself, creating that always ready feel about you. This is what really takes it to a whole lot new level and drives you towards wherever you want to go.
Martin: Yes, it turns it up a notch, doesn't it?
Sandra: Yes, and as we probably would learn very, very soon, it does enable you to do bold attacks. Whether it's in life or in a Dojo, makes it very, very possible when we add this element.
Martin: Yes. It certainly does. May be we should explain what it's all about.
Sandra: Yes, sure thing. We have San Tan, should we just read this from...
Martin: Going back through it, so Ichi Gan, first, the eyes, Ni Soku, second, the stance or the legs, San Tan maybe we've coined it as grit and determination, which you kind of see from this explanation we're about to read out. This is from Soke's teaching manual the kyohon. Could you do the honours there?
Sandra: Yes, sure thing. "Tan refers to the liver. Tan power is the foundation for cultivating ki power, will power, perseverance, and endurance. By cultivating Tan power, spirit sickness (Shikai), and other such weaknesses are gone. Correct judgment ability results and bold attacks are possible."
Martin: Yes, there's a lot there hey. A lot there. I'll just get back to the very first part as I mentioned previously, Tan refers to the liver. I've done a little bit more research on this one. It's not specifically liver as an organ, but it's literally that colloquial term "the gut" when you have that gut feeling or somebody shows guts. Liver is probably a little bit of a misnomer there.
The other one is probably worth repeating once again, is Tan is a different thing to Tanden as a term we hear here in the Dojo quite a bit. Tanden refers to the energy center located in the lower abdomen. While it's very much related to Tan power, they're not one and the same. They're two different things. Let's carry on anyway.
Sandra: All right. Let's take a very different perspective on this one compared to what we have taken with Ichi Gan Ni Soku. Let's go down a road that you are all too familiar with, your past. Let's see if we can do a bit of digging down there in terms of San Tan and see if we can help people identify San Tan in action around them. If we go back to your early days in the Dojo, even in life I guess, in the community that you're living and growing up in.
Could you think back to any examples or moments when you become aware of San Tan?
Martin: Yes, I guess maybe not necessarily specific moments, but I guess that feeling within the Dojo, within the Dojo community. The Dojo that I grew up in when I very first started training in Chito-Ryu was a bit of a rough area or known to be a bit of rough area. The kinds of people that were attracted to the Dojo naturally had this Tan Power about them. They were fighters. Not necessarily fighters as in physically hitting people, fighting with each other.
They were battlers, they had something to prove in life and that came out in everything they did in the Dojo. They way that they trained. They just threw everything into what they did. They trained with guts and determination. You could see if the training thing was to go and do 100 push ups, they go and do 200. They just throw everything into it. I remember back in the early days when you started training, you were very much like this.
You had your own story, you had some challenges to overcome, and it took a lot of guts and determination to get through that.
Sandra: I think for me, although I was having a hard time and then dealing with some significant bad times in my life at that time, I think for me personally, there was a lady by the name of Charlene. She was one of the black belts in that Dojo at that point in time and I don't think I really had a lot of time with her coming through, but the time that I did have with her, she was extremely confident.
I don't think I truly understood the energy that she had created in her journey, but it was very, very powerful. I guess, if you said no to her, I dare say, she'd say, "No way. I'm just going to go and do something."
Martin: Yes, she was very much like that.
Sandra: I couldn't imagine her ever backing down from anything.
Martin: I had quite a bit of time with Charlene and we literally grew up in the dojo together. She's my senior in age and we literally started training on the same day. We stepped into the dojo the very first day the dojo opened and she trained her butt off. She became the first in what became the WKF, World Karate Federation, she became the first Australian and the first Chito-Ryu practitioner to become WKF World Champion.
It wasn't called the WKF back then but what's now the WKF. I don't think it was because she's technically excellent, although she is very, very talented, certainly very talented, it's largely because of this determination. She had something to prove.
Sandra: I guess for a young person coming through for me, I did latch onto that energy about her and I thought, "You know what? I don't know what it is, but it feels good." For me at that point in time, going through some hard times, I latched on to that and there were days where I'd be thinking, "What would Charlene do right now?" It sounds kind of funny, but I would actually use that often and think, "How would she deal with this? Would she back down?"
That was one thing I found for me where I first experienced that San Tan for me. It wasn't actually through me personally, but it did evolve because of that influence in my journey.
Martin: There really have been some amazing people in both of our journeys along the way that have demonstrated this Tan power. It really is incredible, isn't it?
Sandra: I think we're both very, very blessed to have some great role models in that area, 100%. I guess what gets me even more excited the more I study this is learning about shikai and how that when we truly do practice San Tan in all areas of our life, then we can actually have the shikai and not be present in our lives.
Martin: You probably should explain what that…
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Nov 10, 2020
Basic #2 – SOKU （足 ） Legs/Stance
In the episode we continue going deeper into ichi gan, ni soku, san tan, shi riki as we take a deeper look into the second element the legs (stance).
The stance is the foundation upon which we build, it grounds us and is the basis for all movements and actions that carry us forwards. ---- Transcript ----
Martin: Hey everyone, this is Martin & Sandra Phillips and welcome back to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: Today we want to dig a bit deeper into the basics of karate and life, taker a closer look at the second element of ichi gan, ni soku, san tan, shi riki - the stance.
Martin: We've noticed that everyone faces challenges in life, some big some small. But not everyone has a way to navigate these problems.
Sandra: It’s not always easy, but we’ve found that we always keep coming back to what we’ve learned from our years in the dojo.
Martin: And that’s what this podcast is all about...
Sandra: Helping us all find the solutions to life’s problems. Or even better yet, to remove the problems before they arise.
Martin: This is Martin & Sandra Phillips and welcome to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: We've managed to wrap up Ichi Gan, the eyes, Martin, and we do need to move on to Ni Soku. Before we do that, I wanted to share with you I had quite a few people come and talked to me about the Ichi Gan, the eyes segment, and are really interested to learn a lot more about Ni Soku now. They're kind of hanging out.
Martin: The pressure.
Sandra: You've delayed this one coming out. You've had quite a busy time at the moment, but you should look at this a bit quicker I think.
Martin: We need to get it moving.
Sandra: Yes. Okay, so where should we start?
Martin: I think we'll start the same way we did last time and look at Soke's text, his teaching manual the Kyohon. I might show our video again to read it out.
Sandra: "The basis of all movement and posture. Always take care to unconsciously have correct and smooth stepping motion, stance, and way of evasion."
Martin: That's simple stuff, really. Isn't it?
Sandra: You try and do that well. Maybe if you work it out you can let me know.
Martin: Yes. A simple idea, simple but not easy.
Sandra: Okay. Well, let's see if we can break it down just a little bit more than that. When we were having a chat earlier, we were discussing three points as far as looking at the stance, looking at stability, mobility, and also power generation. Maybe let's go to the stability first, and let's see if we can unpack that just a little bit.
Martin: Stability, I guess, that gets back to what we do with our brand new beginner students. The first thing we do when we're looking at stance is literally just getting the feet in the correct position. How wide is your stance? How long is your stance? How much do you bend your knees? Creating that position of stability, but, I guess, this is where we probably need to tie back to the eyes as well.
As we talked about last time with the eyes, that creates that posture and that structure, and then the stance builds on that creating a full body structure.
Sandra: Yes, so we have those little tests in class where there's a big strike shield coming whacking at you or whether it's a one-finger test on your belt, if you don't have your eyes in the correct position, it makes it very hard to maintain a strong stance.
Martin: Yes, this is a bit of a paradox with teaching brand new students to get your feet in the right spot. Automatically most people look down at their feet. They look down at their feet, and they go, "Oh, okay. Are my feet in the right spot?" Then they might have their feet in the right spot, but because they've looked down, they've broken that structure. They've broken the posture. It kind of defeats the purpose of having their feet in the right spot in the first place because they don't have that stability.
Sandra: Yes, so true. Then, as we tend to take people through their journey with their stance, we do find that they do, in time, get their eyes back up and get their posture.
Martin: After lots of reminding normally.
Sandra: Yes. I'm still working on that. I go through cycles, maybe. What happens though is often that we get so caught up on enjoying and embracing the structure and feeling strong and the foundations feel so strong that, I guess, in the stance, for a person coming through once they have the feet in the right position, they feel this sense of structure, they then get so grounded and they have the wrong muscles working, generally they create a tightness.
Then when we have that, we lose all ability to actually move which would be mobility.
Martin: You hit the nail on the head there. Most people when they think strength in the base, they think tightness. Like you said, they just get really tight and they can't move, so what we're going to try to do is to create a feeling of tension in the base. The difference between tension and tightness is if you think of your body, the way your body works, you've got opposing muscle groups.
Tightness, I think of as you've got the opposite sides both working, they're both tight, they're both contracting. That's kind of like driving a car with the handbrake on. It doesn't go so well. When you create tension, that creates a feeling of like a stretch, like a rubber band being stretched out. Then, you have the release. Tension in the body is like when you get the muscles holding to a point, and then one side releases, and you create movement.
Sandra: That preparation is so key, isn't it? Because once you get beyond that point of just being strong and grounded and you want to get more mobile, you then start to play with the different muscles in the body, and as far as that muscle pairing, but then what we then find with people there's a progression which then gets them to a point of starting to move more explosive with their step.
When they go to kick, for example, we can get them to get that foot off the floor faster, or if we go from a punching perspective, we can get that hand from the pullback position to be released much more powerfully and faster as well. But I guess what's underlying, what I find for most people is that when you get that elasticity in the body, I find that for most people, there is no force required to get that technique executed if we truly have the eyes working well in our favour, aligning the posture.
Would you say that would be what you see as well?
Martin: Absolutely, it's key. Again, there's two parts coming back together, the eyes and the stance working together. If you have one working without the other, it doesn't work. It literally does not work. You see people who've got that amazing speed, but if their body's not aligned correctly, it becomes useless.
Sandra: So, preparing, so whether we're in the phase of just getting started on a karate journey as a beginner, just getting those feet in place and then moving on to getting your intermediate and then trying to be really tight and strong and no one can move me kind of feeling, and then eventually going to the point of going, "You know what, it's not practical to stay like this, I can't move."
Martin: If we get back to what we was talking about last time with the eyes, the first rule of self-defense, don't be where the punches are, if you're strong and stable, and can't move, you're going to be where the punches are eventually.
Sandra: It's going to be very, very challenging. Then to obviously then develop your footwork in a way where you can truly apply some great self-defense strategies and some taisabaki (body evasion) you need to be able to get your footwork to be more mobile.
Martin: Absolutely.
Sandra: Just say we were doing some exercising the dojo for a self-defense situation and we're getting people moving beyond being strong and tight, but they're moving into the place where they can be more relaxed and get more mobile and they're doing it with a great posture and eyes. What if they then were to let th…
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Oct 25, 2020
Basic #1 – GAN （眼 ） The Eyes
In the episode we continue going deeper into ichi gan, ni soku, san tan, shi riki as we take a deeper look into the first element the eyes.
The eyes are the most important of all the basics and the way we use them will effect everything else that follows. ---- Transcript ----
Martin: Hey everyone, this is Martin & Sandra Phillips and welcome back to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: Today we want to dig a bit deeper into the basics of karate and life, taker a closer look at the first element of ichi gan, ni soku, san tan, shi riki -the eyes.
Martin: We've noticed that everyone faces challenges in life, some big some small. But not everyone has a way to navigate these problems.
Sandra: It’s not always easy, but we’ve found that we always keep coming back to what we’ve learned from our years in the dojo.
Martin: And that’s what this podcast is all about...
Sandra: Helping us all find the solutions to life’s problems. Or even better yet, to remove the problems before they arise.
Martin: This is Martin & Sandra Phillips and welcome to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: Martin, are you ready to do this today?
Martin: I think so. I think so. We've been spending a little bit of time collecting our thoughts and doing a bit of a brain dump. Every time we look at this we seem to find new angles and new ways to approach things and go a little bit deeper, so we'll see how we go pulling it together.
Sandra: Yes, and I guess for those who have been doing martial arts for a long time, and especially those who are way above our time in the Dojo. For myself personally, I know for you too, every time we discuss Ichi Gan with students of various ages, levels, it always seems to have a similar message, yet also very different. Different angles of how we actually attack those-
Martin: Depending on the audience.
Sandra: -conversations. Yes. Again, this could really blow out, really....
Martin: Yes, it could go so many different directions, maybe a list to help focus, we'll get back to that. The text from Soke's teaching manual, I might let you read there if that's okay.
Sandra: Sure thing. Okay, so... "Ichi Gan, it is said that the spirit of a person is shown most through the eyes. In Budō, Gan represents the power of insight into the movement of the opponent's body, spirit, etc.
Martin: Oh, wow. This is really looking at it from a technical point of view, and I guess to hear the saying, "The eyes are the window to the soul," as looking, not just at their physical body, but their emotional state and their mental state, and looking at how we do that. Perhaps, we'll get onto that in a little bit. Maybe we'll get back and look at it.
Sandra: Yes, let's go really simple.
Martin: We'll go really simple.
Sandra: Really simple, and just think, okay, if we just go back to ourselves as individuals, so we look at as far as how we use the eyes for ourselves.
Martin: As an individual, when I think eye focus, I think, "Where are my eyes fixed? Am I looking down? Am I looking up? Am I focused on something? Am I just in a bit of a daze?" Just by aligning the eyes, looking forwards, that in turn, helps to align the posture and creates a position of personal power. When the head comes down, when the eyes come down, the head comes down, the posture collapses. When you hold that for any extended period of time, you start to feel a little bit depressed.
Sandra: Yes, low energy, not much flowing through you.
Martin: Then, just by opening that up, opening it up, fixing the eyes off into the distance, looking forwards rather than backwards, it allows you to create that feeling of strength within yourself.
Sandra: Yes. Would you also say that with that feeling, it tends to also help correct the posture?
Martin: Oh, absolutely.
Sandra: And create greater stability and balance...?
Martin: Yes, one feeds into the other. The eyes feed into the posture, the posture feeds into the eyes and that feeling of strength or power come from that.
Sandra: Yes, and I guess you could also look at it in terms of the way you look at people. You could look at people with love and kindness or you could look at people with hate and jealousy and just in the way you'd look at people, it's amazing how that can have an instant effect on your overall psychology as well.
Martin: Absolutely. When we see this, I'll take this back to the dojo for a second, when you look at a partner, some people just look really scary.
Sandra: Yes, you're one of those people.
Martin: I'm one of those people. [chuckles]
Sandra: [chuckles]
Martin: It's not because they're doing anything, they can just be standing there and they just look scary. Some people look intimidating. Some people look like they're ready to be eaten alive. I remember, there's a few teachers I've trained with in Japan, I'm pretty tall, compared to most Japanese people, I remember training with a few people, and physically, they're not that big, but you look at them, and they just look like they're 10 feet tall because they've just got this presence about them, through the way that they use their eyes and the way they hold themselves, that just makes them look larger than life.
Sandra: Wow, that commanding presence,
Martin: That commanding presence, getting back to the referee rulebook.
Sandra: Yes, I always come back to the commanding presence, it's stuck with me, not just as a referee, but I've taken that a whole lot-- a lot of thought had gone into that in my own training as well, and as a parent, believe it or not, always thinking of those sorts of things. All right, let's move on now, let's extend outside of ourselves, and let's move into our surrounding environment.
Martin: Using your eyes in this way, I guess, is looking at what's going on around you. If we look at it from a self-defense scenario being aware of what's around you is the first rule of self-defense, is, be aware of what's there and don't be where the trouble is. Just that awareness of looking at, where are the potential threats? Let's say, you're walking into a nightclub and you see there's some people over on the side, there's a bit of an argument erupting, do you walk towards it, or do you walk around the other way and stay away from it? Just being aware of the space around you is the first step.
Also being aware of opportunities in that same scenario. You've walked into this space and there's a disturbance erupting over there on the side, and you're looking for where are the possible escape routes, so you're not walking into the trouble. If the trouble erupts further and it becomes bigger than it needs to be, then you've got a way to get out, not be there.
Sandra:: No, it's fantastic. It just brought back a memory for me when I was a young mum. I remember being in a park all alone with our two kids and you were at work and I was there on my own. I remember this man coming towards me and it just did not feel right. He was probably about at least maybe 100 meters away but I just instantly felt, oh, this is not good feeling.
Martin: You just felt uneasy about him?
Sandra: It felt really uneasy about this man coming and he was walking straight at me. I had two young kids. I think Sam would have probably been around, oh, gee, I don't know, three or so and so they were still really young and happy and doing their thing, obviously. Minding their own business but this man's looking at me. He started walking quite slow and he got faster and faster. Then a car pulled up. A young family coming into the park as well, and he straightaway just veered off and he ran the other way.
It was a most bizarre experience. I thought, wow, what's going to happen here? It was only because my environment changed that that person's actions were changing as well, so what may have happened? I don't know but I was certainly very aware of him coming into that space from such a distance. It was a very unusual feeling about this person. You can sense it. If you have yourself posi…
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Oct 15, 2020
An Introduction To The Basics – Ichi Gan, Ni Soku, San Tan, Shi Riki （一眼 二足 三胆 四力）
We're very excited to be introducing an incredibly deep topic in this episode, but to be honest we feel like we're only just scratching the surface.
It's a bit of a technical topic, but it's also a great metaphor for life.
In the dojo, we always ask the question, "What is it that I need to focus on the most that will have the biggest impact on what I'm trying to do?" In going as deep as you can on these concepts in this podcast you'll always find a good answer to this question.
Hopefully it is more than enough to get you curious and keen to learn more. This episode is just a start, in upcoming episodes we will go deeper and explore each of the elements of this concept in greater detail. ---- Transcript ----
Sandra: Hey everyone, this is Martin & Sandra Phillips and welcome back to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: Today we want give you an introduction to the basics of karate and life.
Martin: Otherwise know as ichi gan, ni soku, san tan, shi riki.
We've noticed that everyone faces challenges in life, some big some small. But not everyone has a way to navigate these problems.
Sandra: It’s not always easy, but we’ve found that we always keep coming back to what we’ve learned from our years in the dojo.
Martin: And that’s what this podcast is about...
Sandra: Helping us all find the solutions to life’s problems...
Martin: Or even better yet, to remove the problems before they arise.
Sandra: This is Martin & Sandra Phillips and welcome to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: Wow, Martin I can't believe we're actually doing this one today. To be honest with you, when you first mentioned this, I thought, "You can't be serious." This is just--
Martin: It's a bit of a deep topic this one, isn't it?
Sandra: It's so deep. It's insanely deep. I don't know how to explain it. It's going to be a tough few episodes for us coming up, I think, because we're only going to be scratching on the surface, if that.
Martin: Yes, this is a bit like that. This really is the foundation for everything that we do in the dojo. We look at this concept, ichi gan, ni soku, san tan, shi riki, and it is the basis of all basics. It's the basis of everything that we do, not just in the dojo, but it's a fantastic metaphor for life as well, as we take these lessons outside of the dojo as well.
Sandra: Yes. Even, I guess, right now, you could say, "A long story made short," just really appreciate these concepts and really apply them and go deep as you possibly can.
Martin: We probably should explain what they are, shouldn't we?
Sandra: We really should do that, yes. Okay. In the intro, we mentioned ichi gan, ni soku, san tan, and shi riki. I'm going to hand it over to you, because you're our Japanese kanji expert. If you could please do a little bit of a quick meaning of these four.
Martin: Yes. Ichi gan, this first, is the eyes.
Sandra: Ichi means number one, right?
Martin: Number one. Ichi gan, yes. First, the eyes. Ni soku, the second, is legs or the stance.
Sandra: Ni is number two and Soku is legs.
Martin: San tan-- I'm going to pause here for a moment, because this one's often mistranslated and, to be honest, there's not really a great English version of this. San tan is often translated as tanden-- not really a translation, but just a Japanese word used. Tanden refers to the energy center in your body located in your lower abdomen. San tan is literally liver.
Sandra: Yes?
Martin: The liver. It kind of sounds a bit strange, but we'll get to that later.
Sandra: We'll get to that.
Martin: Shi riki, this fourth, is power. When you add these first three together, ichi gan, ni soku, san tan, shi riki-- because shi equals riki, that's the power.
Sandra: Like a birthday cake. There's your ingredients; 1 + 2 + 3 = your cake that you just baked in the oven.
Martin: That's the one. Yes. Good way to describe it.
Sandra: If you think of it like that, we're going to be all good to go. All right. Let's go just a little bit deep on this one. You've been to Japan many, many, many centuries ago.
[laughter]
Martin: Many times over the years, let’s say.
Sandra: I'm just playing. I'm just funny. I'm being a bit cheeky, sorry.
Martin: You do that, don't you?
Sandra: I do. I do play along. Okay. You did do some wonderful work with the help of many people to help to do some translating. Do you want to share a bit of that, what your translation was?
Martin: This was back when I spent nearly a year living in Japan and training full-time back in 97-98, over 20 years ago now. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to do some translation work on Soke’s Kyohon. Soke is my teacher. He's the head of Chito-Ryu worldwide. His teaching manual, there was only a Japanese version of that, and I had the opportunity to translate, with the help of a lot of people-- I might actually hand over to you to read just a brief excerpt about the ichi gan, ni soku, san tan, shi riki.
Sandra: Yes, sure thing. Okay. Gan, which is the eyes, number one: "It is said that the spirit of a person is shown most through the eyes. In budo, gan represents the power of insight into the movements of the opponent's body, spirit, etc." Then, we have soku: "The legs are the basis of all movement and posture. Always take care to unconsciously have correct and smooth-stepping motion, stance, and way of evasion." Then we have tan, the one that you love to talk about so much, refers to the liver.
Martin: I'm going to butt in just really quickly just to--
Sandra: I knew you would.
Martin: Yes, you knew I would. Just a little bit of an aside. Although it refers to liver, I like to look at this one as referring to the gut, or the grit or determination. It also does tie in with the tanden, this all-encompassing thing, but the tanden alone is probably a little bit shallow.
Sandra: Yes. In some of my research, I've also learned that they refer to the tan in terms of bravery and determination.
Martin: It's that emotional element or the spirit-- You've probably heard of the saying, "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog." This is kind of like that. It's that extra element that you bring in outside of the physical technique.
Sandra: I love it. We'll come back to that in the future, I'm sure. Then, we have--
Martin: Sorry, I’d better let you keep reading. I'm cutting in you there.
Sandra: Yes, thank you. Should I start again or we'll just go back to where I was up to?
Martin: Back to where you’re up to.
Sandra: Okay. "Tan power is the foundation for cultivating Ki power, will power, perseverance, and endurance. By cultivating Tan power, spirit sickness, known as Shikai, and other such weaknesses are gone. Correct judgment ability results and bold attacks are possible." It's so cool, isn't it?
Martin: That is really cool.
Sandra: Dig deep on that one everyone. Then, shi riki is technique. "Through diligent training of Kata and Kumite, technique will develop naturally."
Martin: The interesting one on this-- I'm just going to cut in on that one as well. Shi riki, although it says technique, the kanji character for riki is actually power. The way you do technique also adds to the power.
Sandra: Love it. All right. I know you want to do a little bit deeper, but we're running out of time, really, for today. Do you want to just quickly look at, maybe, a surface-level idea of your thoughts on how this works in life-- just really briefly?
Martin: Just a really brief one. A few months ago, we had a little bit of a brainstorming session. We might share this with everybody. We were looking at how do we apply this ichi gan, ni soku, san tan, shi riki to a business plan, and that was a really, really interesting process. It allowed us to really quickly give a snapshot of where we're at and where we're going.
Looking at the eyes, this is how you interpret what's going on around you and looking forward and how you take in the world, how you interact with peop…
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Oct 4, 2020
The Rule of 1%
How good would it be if you could get a 1% return on investment?
Well… if you thinking 1% per annum like the banks give you, then it's probably not so attractive.
But what about if it’s 1% per week or even 1% per day, compounded?
Sounds too good to be true, but it's possible.
Full disclosure: This episode is about personal growth, not finances. But if properly applied, this could also have a very positive effect on your finances if that's your focus.
We want to help you make a shift in mindset that allows you to create this kind of growth through consistent effort and a push towards continual improvement.
Think about it, let's say there's something that you really like to do and you do it on a regular basis… like karate ;-)
Every time you train, you aim to improve by just 1%. If you can do that, how quickly do you think you could be twice as good compared to your starting point?
This is the basis of the rule of 1%, but it doesn't stop there. ---- Transcript ----
Martin: Hey everyone, this is Martin & Sandra Phillips and welcome back to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: Today we want to talk about, ‘The Rule of 1%.’
Martin: We've noticed that everyone faces challenges in life, some big some small. But not everyone has a way to navigate these problems.
Sandra: It’s not always easy, but we’ve found that we always keep coming back to what we’ve learned from our years in the dojo.
Martin: And that’s what this podcast is about...
Sandra: Helping us all find the solutions to life’s problems...
Martin: Or even better yet, to remove the problems before they arise.
Sandra: This is Martin & Sandra Phillips and welcome to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: Okay, today, Martin, we wanted to look at one of the most powerful habits that we've come to learn over time. I guess initially in our journeys we didn't really realise we're even doing this when we're quite young, but I guess when you're teaching for a long time, you soon come to realise the power of this habit. I'm going to hand over to you to share a bit more about this habit.
Martin: All right. In one of the previous episodes, we've talked about the idea of a growth mindset and that the idea of seeking continual improvement. One of the really powerful ways to do that is through this "Power of 1%", we call it. This idea of growing just 1% every time you do something, and you just add a little bit better, a little bit better, a little bit better, and then over a period of time, you see a whole lot of change.
Sandra: Okay, so you've been training for how many years now?
Martin: Just a couple.
Sandra: Just a couple of years. How many years is a couple?
Martin: 36 years.
Sandra: Okay, so 36 years. In 36 years, is there any examples that come to mind where you can see this in your journey of practicing, striving to be 1% better?
Martin: It's one of those things. I wouldn't say that I've ever been a fast learner. I pick things up quickly, but I wouldn't say I've at any one stage, I've progressed through the ranks very quickly. It's always been a fairly constant, steady path forward for me. With that in mind, I guess my whole journey has been about little by little, step by step, going that little bit further.
Sandra: That's great. I think one of the things that you're most famous for in our dojo is "You just gotta turn up."
Martin: You just keep turning up.
Sandra: You gotta keep turning up. You keep on saying to everybody. When you keep turning up, do you think of it in terms of, "I'm going to keep turning up, but do it better this time?"
Martin: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. That's the goal, that's the underlying thing. It's not just turn up and go through the motions and come back and do it all the same again. If you do it all the same again, you're going to end up in the same place in 10 years' time. In taking that small-- Even if it's the smallest step forward, whatever it is, if you see some kind of improvement in every lesson that you do, then you can't help but grow.
Sandra: Okay. As a student-- When you go to the dojo now as a student, just to help some other people think of this. When you go into the dojo, what are you thinking as far as-- What are you trying to focus on in terms of being 1% better? Is it the way you bow? Is it the way you speak? Is the way you interact with others? Is there something that comes to mind?
Martin: There's lots of things that could potentially be there. I think this is where a lot of people make a mistake with this 1% better thing. They focus too much on the results. Let's say, in the dojo, for example, they focus on "What's the next belt? I've got to get to the next belt. I've got to get to the next belt." Rather than focusing on "What are the things that are going to help me get to the next belt?"
If you focus on those things, as a beginner, you're focusing on just getting good form in your technique. You're focusing on improving the way that you step, so getting your feet in the right positions. Every time you do it, you think, "Okay, that didn't quite feel right," or my teacher came along and gave me a little bit of a push and I fell over really easily. I've gotta adjust something, I got to change something and make it a little bit different.
In those early stages, you get a lot of direct feedback from your teacher. As you progress through a little bit further, you start to become a little bit more self-active, and hopefully start to start to look at things yourself and start to make self-corrections because you've received feedback many times, over and over and over again, and you start to realise, "I can do this myself."
Sandra: That's fantastic. If we go back in time, just a little bit in time when you were a brown belt. I remember you sharing this story with some of our black belts quite a while ago now. You mentioned the time that you went to your first brown and black belt session. I'd love to know more about that.
Martin: Yes. I was quite young when I first got my brown belt, relatively young. I can't remember how old now. I think it was just before I hit high school, I got my brown belt.
I remember going to a brown and black belt training session, and there was all these brown and black belts from different dojos all over the place. In my memory, at least, there were 20 or 30 people there, and because I'd just recently graded to brown belt, I was the last one in line, and there's all these people in front of me lined up. I remember making this a goal for myself that I didn't want to be the last one in line.
Over time, my goal was to move forward through those ranks. That was my goal, but the thing that helped me do that was the day-to-day basis of turning up in class and finding this 1% improvement, this continual improvement, improvement, improvement, improvement, and through that process of, ONE to turn up, TWO to turn up with the view of improving. That's allowed me to overtime now be one of the seniors, one of the more senior people in Australia.
Sandra: That's awesome. That's fantastic. It's a really great story to share with our younger people coming through. If we look at, in the dojo now when we're teaching, we will often have little prompts for our students; our younger students, our little champions. We often don't say, "1% better," because it gets glazed over in their eyes...
Martin: What's 1%?
Sandra: ... what is 1%? We will often say to the little champions, "Let's try and do it a little bit better."
Martin: Just that little bit better.
Sandra: Just a little bit better, and it's amazing how you can say to a little champion, "Let's kiai a little bit louder--"
Martin: It goes from volume 2 to volume 10 in one step.
Sandra: Yes, and they just roar, don't they?
Martin: They do.
Sandra: It's amazing. If that's their "little bit better" on their kiai, can you imagine what a little bit better with cleaning their bedroom is? Seriously.
Martin: Imagine that.
Sandra: [chuckles] It'd be insan…
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Sep 28, 2020
Family Time With A Purpose
It's great to get in the dojo and train, but it's even better to do it with your family.
Nothing says quality time with your family better than the opportunity to kick your child in the head or having them throw you to the ground and punch you.
In all seriousness though, getting into the dojo as a family is a great way to spend quality time, but the benefits don't stop there.
Normal family hierarchies can be turned on their head. Especially when the kids start training first which is often the case. In this case, the parents are the juniors and the kids are their seniors.
I love the way karate helps us look at things in a different way. ---- Transcript ----
Martin: Hey everyone, this is Martin & Sandra Phillips and welcome to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: Today we want to talk about, ‘family time with a purpose.’
Martin: We've noticed that everyone faces challenges in life, some big some small. But not everyone has a way to navigate these problems.
Sandra: It’s not always easy, but we’ve found that we always keep coming back to what we’ve learned from our years in the dojo.
Martin: And that’s what this podcast is about...
Sandra: Helping us all find the solutions to life’s problems...
Martin: Or even better yet, to remove the problems before they arise.
Sandra: This is Martin & Sandra Phillips and welcome to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: Hello everybody, Sandra here.
Martin: Hey, this is Martin. How are you doing today?
Sandra: Today, we wanted to celebrate some of our wonderful parents. I'm not sure if many of you know this, but at Sunshine Coast Karate, we have quite a few parents who are being brave and they're jumping into the dojo and they're training with the kids.
Martin: Yes, it's great to see parents jumping in and training with the kids. Not a lot of them do, but they certainly are some, and it always puts a bit of a smile on our face and in the faces of the parents and the kids too.
Sandra: Yes. One of the things that we'd like to look at with today's podcast is to share with you the reasons why we think it's a wonderful thing to have more parents in the dojo as far as not only helps the kids themselves but also to help the parents too.
Martin: There's so many benefits to doing this, like just that family time of kids and parents together. We see people in daily life just getting distracted by needing to focus on this, focus on that, and then the last thing is... oh the kids too.
Sandra: Yes, we can easily say, "Just wait five more minutes, and I'll be right with you," but doesn't always go down so well if we go too often with our kids, does it?
Martin: No, they don't tend to like that too much.
Sandra: Yes. That's one of the great things, is when you're in the dojo, you have driven to the dojo together, you are in a class together, and it's going to go for 40 minutes, that class, potentially or longer, so you have to get in that moment, don't you?
Martin: Yes, you certainly do. That's one of the benefits of training overall, is because it's such a difficult, challenging thing to do that you're forced to connect both your mind and your body to work together just as an individual a little and as a family. You're forced to focus on yourself because you can't get engaged without focusing both those two things together. Then when you bring the family on in it as well, it's a whole different story.
Sandra: Yes. You see parents, and me included, we have our kids training as well, and you get so caught up on really enjoying being with them. It's amazing how a smile can just come across that face so much faster when you've got the kids and they're training with you. It's so easy to get lost in those moments, and it really helps to relax you. Although you might be stepping in your comfort zone with something that you're doing there and then, just having that person there with you, it just seems to melt away any kind of anxiety, any sort of fears or hang-ups, and you just go with the flow.
Martin: Yes. I see that all the time, especially in the little champion’s class on Saturday morning, that seems to be quite popular with the families. You see these parents jumping in to train with their little champions, 4-7 year olds, and we teach the class to the kids. We teach it to that age group. There're jumping around, they’re playing games, and the parents are doing it right alongside with the kids. They're forced to be kids just by being in the class. As an adult, we don't really get opportunities to do that so much. Most of us don't, I know you like to do things like that. You've been known to get a little bit childish at times, but--
Sandra: There's a reason for it though. I have this belief, get this, I really think that, because I'm a very serious person, as you know, I take life-
Martin: You can be. You can be, yes.
Sandra: -way too seriously at times. I like to think about balancing my life, and I figure what's on the other side of that seriousness and focus and intensity and moving through with life is being a bit more childlike and having some fun and creating adventures. That's what keeps things really alive and full of energy for me, is when you're creating moments with families and with ourselves where we're looking forward to something in our life. It really helps you move through that moment there and then and get excited about something.
Martin: Yes. I guess in the dojo context, it really brings the parent into the child's world, doesn't it?
Sandra: Yes. It's pretty amazing watching them, isn't it? Another great benefit would be that on that car ride home, this is the chance for the parents to be that child's number one fan, and they've got something to talk about together and get excited about and work on together. It's a wonderful chance for parents to look at how they've balanced their feedback as far as to be encouraging and to help that child to move through possible challenges, but also to think about-- also to give some more constructive criticism as well, which is going to help that child get even better.
Martin: Yes. That's one of the things that we look at when we're talking about ourselves, is when we're giving feedback to ourselves, when we give feedback like we're giving it to a child. Quite often, it's really easy to get hard on yourself, and you give feedback in such a way where you just beat yourself down, but when you've got your own child, most parents I know wouldn't intentionally talk down at their children. They wouldn't give them a hard time and treat them badly with their words. I kind of causes you to reflect a little bit on how you do that with yourself, too.
Sandra: That's one of the greatest gifts of training with your kids, isn't it? It really brings to the surface. The extra bonus is that you become a mirror to your child and vice versa. If you see your child doing something in a certain way or you see them responding to things in a certain way, they get it from somewhere. If we are open enough, I think that that's a really beautiful thing because when we see things in our children, it's a chance for us to look back at ourselves and say, "Do I need to come back and work on that as well?"
Martin: Yes, that mirror, that can be a really good thing. It can be a really scary thing at times because you look at things that your children do and you think, "Well, they're really good kids, aren't they? They've got that from somewhere." Then at other times you look at them go, "Wow, where did that come from?"
Sandra: It's out of the blue.
Martin: Really, it's that mirror being held up, isn't it? a lot of the time.
Sandra: Yes, it's so true. What you're saying in that case aspect to going, "Okay, full circle. Let's take some responsibility for this and let's go, 'All right, so in my day, I'm going to make an effort as a parent to lead by example with that particular weakness, and I'm going to show my child another way of doing that or approaching that.'"
It's…
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Sep 21, 2020
The Power Of Leading By Example
“There’s always somebody watching.” In everything that we do people see us. Whether we like to admit it or not, we are being judged. But even more importantly people are learning from us.
In the dojo, juniors look up to their seniors, but it also works the other way too.
Outside of the dojo, as parents our kids see everything we do and copy, our actions, attitudes & habits; both the good and the bad.
The same is true of everyone we come into contact with on a daily basis. Over time, we pick up the habits of the people with whom we spend the most time.
If there's always someone watching... maybe we need to ask, "What’s the example I am trying to set?" ---- Transcript ----
Sandra: Hey everyone, this is Martin & Sandra Phillips, welcome back. to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Martin: Today we want to talk about, ‘the power of leading by example.’
Martin: We've noticed that everyone faces challenges in life, some big some small. But not everyone has a way to navigate these problems.
Sandra: It’s not always easy, but we’ve found that we always keep coming back to what we’ve learned from our years in the dojo.
Martin: And that’s what this podcast is about...
Sandra: Helping us all find the solutions to life’s problems...
Martin: Or even better yet, to remove the problems before they arise.
Sandra: This is Martin & Sandra Phillips and welcome to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: Good to see you back again, Martin. Are we enjoying the podcasts?
Martin: Yes, we're certainly getting there. It's a bit of a learning experience, but each time we do it, hopefully, we're getting a little bit better.
Sandra: I think we're getting better. I think it's great to watch you do a few mishaps with the technology.
Martin: Yes... Good for you. [chuckles]
Sandra: Good for me to watch on the sideline. Let's get straight into today's topic of the power of leading by example. This one is, I guess, for me personally, one thing that I practice most days and I have done for many years. Thanks to Soke Sensei. He pulled this one out of the bag many years ago when I first met him when our kids were very young and he came to the Sunshine Coast. I didn't speak very much to him. That was more so your place where you spoke mostly to Soke Sensei.
I had a brief chat every now and then, but it was so small and so few words, but I remember one occasion when he said to me, "Lead by example." I pondered that for years. Our kids are now teenagers and I still ponder that question every day. I look at the world around me and think, "Okay, I'm leading by example, but there's some things that are coming back at me, which I don't necessarily like," and I always come back to myself. I take 100% responsibility in that reflection. If I don't like what's coming back from our children or our students, I would go back to me first and think what am I putting out there.
Martin: It's a bit of reflection. Every person that you come into contact with that you spend time with on a daily basis, they start to take on your behaviors, your habits, your routines. It's like holding a mirror up to yourself and looking at the example that you're setting for them. I know this is something that, I guess, we both take very seriously, both in the dojo and as parents as is what's the example that we try to set. We say these habits mirrored back to us, some good, some not so good. Every time, it's an opportunity to learn and reset the course.
Sandra: If you're open to receiving that kind of learning. I know that in the past, I wasn't so open to receiving that because it was nothing to do with my problems. It wasn't all about me. It was all about the other person doing the wrong thing, but often we have to be humble enough and think, "Well, hang on, what can I do in this situation?" I guess, remain empowered as opposed to giving up your power. When you take responsibility for yourself and what comes to you and your life and empowers you to create change for the better. Have you got any examples of leading by example.
Martin: Well, I was actually going to throw it back to you because when we were talking about this before, you had a really good example with the kids and one of the habits that you have in your work situation.
Sandra: I'll try and be as brief as I can with this one. That can be drawn out. I think this one, but let's just put it in shorthand when my kids were younger and I was working, when they approached me during work time, I would close my laptop and I'd turn my body and I would face them and I would listen intently. Basically, if it was the right time to-- if I could get away from the work, I would do that. I would just stop work.
Martin: You had something really important.
Sandra: Something really important. Things like what comes to my mind are things like sock-sliding. You get your socks on and slide on those tiles around the house and chase the kids down.
Martin: So really important stuff.
Sandra: Really important stuff.
Martin: Like if they come to you with a scooter?
Sandra: Yes, they'd bring the scooters in and we go for a scooter ride around the house. These are really important things, or go on the trampoline together. They're important to me. I love connecting with the kids. There's also been times when I've been so caught up on work and I couldn't get off that laptop. I had to get something finished and I would simply say to the kids, "Hey, look, when that big hand moves down to whatever number it was, I will be all yours." They've never ever had an issue with that.
Martin: What's that got to do with leading by example?
Sandra: The great thing now they'd both teenagers and every time I go and approach them for something and I go into their room or I find them around the house, basically, every time I go and approach them, needing something from them, they always stop what they're doing. They would turn the devices off, take the headphones out and they'll listen to me with great intent and want to know what's going on.
Martin: That's mirror are coming back?
Sandra: Yes, it's amazing to have kids that want to listen to you. [chuckles]
Martin: That's a good thing, isn't it?
Sandra: Beautiful. Sometimes, it is just for a bit of a sock-slide or a scooter around the house or something fun like that, or just to have some time together, but it's to know that you can capture someone's attention in that way.
Martin: How about in the dojo because, I guess, the mirror being held up? How do you see that happening in the dojo?
Sandra: A great example would be we had a grading just yesterday. I guess, you often talk about this reflection on grading days. We always celebrate the students their grade, of course, but we also go back to the drawing board as teachers and ourselves. Maybe, I'll hand back to you on this one. You can share more about your processes that you go through after a grading.
Martin: On grading day, I'd like to look at students, obviously. Obviously, I'd like to look at students and assess how they're progressing in their own run, but it's also a chance for us to look at ourselves and how we're communicating things and how we're teaching things because, obviously, a certain habits come out at various levels. The students all will do things in a certain way. You'll see when it's one student, you think, "Okay, it's a personal habit." When it's multiple students are at that same level, all doing things in a certain way that you know aren't quite right, you go to ask the question, where's this coming from, and 9 times out of 10, they've learned that habit from somewhere, and it's normally from us.
Sandra: Usually from you.
Martin: Usually. [laughs]
Sandra: It's fun.
Martin: In the process of looking back and reflecting on what students are doing on grading day in particular, but it happens all the time. We talk about students all the time in the dojo about how they're progressing and what they're learning and what habits they're developin…
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Sep 13, 2020
What Makes A Good Student
Welcome back to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Episode 2 - What Makes A Good Student
In this episode, we explore what it is that makes a good student. This is something that we believe is a key ingredient to accelerate your karate journey and also help you to excel in all areas of life. ---- Transcript ----
Martin: Hey everyone, this is Martin & Sandra Phillips, welcome to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: Today we want to talk about, ‘what makes a good student, both in the dojo and in life.’
Martin: We've noticed that everyone faces challenges in life, some big some small. But not everyone has a way to navigate these problems.
Sandra: It’s not always easy, but we’ve found that we always keep coming back to what we’ve learned from our years in the dojo.
Martin: And that’s what this podcast is about...
Sandra: Helping us all find the solutions to life’s problems...
Martin: Or even better yet, to remove the problems before they arise.
Sandra: This is Martin & Sandra Phillips and welcome to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: It's another wonderful day on the Sunshine Coast, and you've just been for a bike ride. How are you feeling?
Martin: Feeling pumped and ready to go.
Sandra: Have you got some good information for us this morning?
Martin: Oh, I hope so.
Sandra: I hope you do or we’d be in trouble if you don't. Just going to share with everybody that we tend to do a lot of discussion about our students. We like to keep in the loop with what's going on in the dojo. We don't teach every class together these days. We have one of us in, one of us out, and we, on the odd occasion, are in there together. We do a lot of chatting about students and we certainly have a lot of great students on the Sunshine Coast.
Martin: We certainly do, we have some really good students.
Sandra: Yes. We've been thinking about how to help people learn more about what makes a great student. We've been thinking deeply and looking for three things. Three things that stand out, which we believe make a great student. Of course, there are a lot of other things we could add to this list, but these are the top three things that we believe, if you do these three things and have the courage to step up, you will be a great student in any endeavor that you choose to do.
Martin, what have we got?
Martin: Oh, you put a lot of pressure on, just three things. First one, I guess, is to have a curious mind. This is what we see, particularly from beginners and the beginner mindset of being able to look at things with wide eyes and go, "Wow, I really want to learn about that. I really want to know how that works." Just the way how you look at things with your eyes wide open.
This is something, as a beginner, a lot of people are really good at, but then as you get further along, people want to aim to get back to that beginner mindset and look at things with curiosity.
Sandra: I love that. I've got to be truthful with you. That's how I feel when I go to Japan or have a chance to train with Soke Sensei. I just think there's so much more that I need to know, and I know there's much more I need to do, but you just look at what he does and the things that he shares, and it's just like, "Wow."
Martin: Mind-blowing.
Sandra: Mind-blowing what you can do. I think I celebrate 30 years in a dojo this year, I think you celebrate 60 years or so.
Martin: Steady on. [laughs]
Sandra: 35?
Martin: 36.
Sandra: 36 years in the dojo. I guess, to be so far on in our journey, we're still quite young really. It's certainly very wide-eyed for us. Isn't it? There's so much more we have to learn yet.
Martin: Oh, yes, there is. Yes. Absolutely.
Sandra: Curiosity. Let's keep moving on, shall we? What's the second thing in your mind?
Martin: As you get through the initial stages of practicing curiosity, we'll look at developing a growth mindset. Looking at how you're doing things as you're doing something, because you start over time, obviously, you need to repeat things again and again and again and again. Some people can look at that and go, "Oh, that same old thing doing that and getting bored with it," or other people staying right next to their mind they're just getting more curious and more curious and more curious, as by asking that question how can they do better.
Sandra: They're engaging their mind whilst they practice. They're not just doing things mindlessly, they're turning up with a purpose to improve themselves, and they know they need to get their mind turning over.
Martin: Yes, absolutely. That's a really good way to put it. Engaging the mind in the process so it becomes-- A few people I’ve spoken to, and I kind of look at this in the same way, --karate becomes more than just a physical exercise, it becomes a meditation in motion. As you're moving your body, your mind's being engaged in such a focused way that you can't figure out anything else that's going on around you.
Sandra: Yes. Isn't that an exciting thing that brings you into the moment, and we are all so caught up in our own lives sometimes, thinking about the past, thinking about the future, and what we're going to do next or getting our checklist all ticked off and that kind of thing. Yet in the dojo, you're forced to engage your mind in such a way where it takes you into the moment, that's the most beautiful, peaceful place to be, isn't it? You are there at that moment and you simply live fully.
Martin: I think that's one of the things that people love about coming into the dojo. No matter what they've been through in the day, whether they had a tough day at work or school. They get into the dojo and you can see within minutes that the stresses melt away, and they're just so engaged in what's happening right in front of them.
Sandra: That's fantastic. I guess you've got the curiosity, you've got the growth mindset, and they're two very powerful ideas, aren't they? Which, if you actively practice those two things, then you want to go back to the dojo more and more, don't you? Which comes to our third idea which would help you be a great student.
Martin: Which is, just to be consistent, just turn up. There are going to be times when you just feel rubbish, you just don't want to turn up like, say, there's things going on in life outside of the dojo that are taking your focus, or if you're just physically feeling in a low state or mentally in the low state, and the advice we would like to give him in this segment is just turn up. It's not just physically turn up, but turn up mentally as well. Turn up and bring your A-game.
Sandra: When you turn up, you see people who are on fire and moving, and some days you don't have that feeling within yourself, but you say to yourself, "You know what, if I focus on myself throughout this lesson, I'm going to get nowhere,". If you switch your focus across to those people with you in the dojo at that point in time and jump on their wave with them, that's another way to pull yourself out of those moments. You actually leave the dojo in a much better state with your energy than when you first arrived.
Martin: Yes, I guess one of the things I love about the dojo is the community element. When you're having a low state, you can feed off the positivity of others, feed off their energy, and then, in turn, when they are having a low state you can give back to them as well.
Sandra: It's always about helping each other. You just have to help each other and keep moving forward one day at a time, one lesson at a time.
Let's wrap up. Our top three things to be a great student one more time, please.
Martin: Curiosity, having a growth mindset and turning up.
Sandra: Awesome. We hope that this helps you all with your training in the dojo and also to apply to all areas of your life. These are three things that we also apply to our lives. Have a wonderful day everybody, and we'll see you in the dojo.
Martin: Thanks for listening to today's episode of the Karate 4 Life Podcast…
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Sep 1, 2020
The Importance Of Having A Goal
Welcome to the Karate 4 Life Podcast, we're very excited to be sharing the first episode today and we want to jump right in and get started. Episode 1 - The Importance Of Having A Goal
Although the topic for today's episode was inspired by a lesson with some of our karate kids, the topic is equally important for people of all ages. ---- Transcript ----
Sandra: Hey everyone, this is Martin & Sandra Phillips, welcome to the Karate 4 Life Podcast. Today we want to talk about, ‘the importance of having a goal.’
Martin: We've noticed that everyone faces challenges in life, some big some small. But not everyone has a way to navigate these problems.
Sandra: It’s not always easy, but we’ve found that we always keep coming back to what we’ve learned from our years in the dojo.
Martin: And that’s what this podcast is about...
Sandra: Helping us all find the solutions to life’s problems...
Martin: Or even better yet, to remove the problems before they arise.
Sandra: This is Martin & Sandra Phillips and welcome to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: Let's say you wanted to help kids go back to school. I'm not talking about making their lunches and their beds. Not that kind of help. Let's say you became aware of some kids struggling to get back into a routine after their holidays. They went back to school for their first week, and just had their tail dragging between their legs. What would you tell them? What would you advise them to think about?
Martin: What I'd tell them? Well, I'm actually going to throw it right back at you because you've got some really good ideas. You were talking about the kids the other day at the dojo, about going to the airport.
Sandra: Yes. I was looking at it in terms of, if you've got some kids who were struggling to get focused, or motivated or want to quit everything, in one of those lower states, I liken that to you being at the airport, and sitting there watching life go by. Watching the airplanes come and go. Watching the people come and go. You're just sitting there and waiting. It was interesting to watch the kids' feedback on that. It was like, "Huh, you mean in not having a goal, or a target, or a destination you've just got to sit and wait?"
Martin: They're not getting on the airplanes, they're just sitting there waiting for the airplanes?
Sandra: That's right. They've started their school term. If they've got no actual destination, or goals in mind to achieve, they've pretty well just parked their butts on an airport lounge and just waiting for life to happen to them.
Martin: Waiting for something to happen.
Sandra: Yes, and getting very reactive about life. So when we go to an airport, we go there with a purpose. We go there with a destination in mind.
Martin: Normally you'd book the tickets before you even get there, and get a little bit ready.
Sandra: If it's anybody, except for you, I would say that would happen.
Martin: [laughs] Oh, come on now. [laughs]
Sandra: I think it's a thing where, yes, you'd want to know where you want to go. We were planting the seed in the kids' minds in terms of, "Okay you're at the airport, and we’ve got to get a destination, somewhere to go." We looked at that in terms of school. You're going back to school, you've got to be there, you've got no choice, it's just how life works at this point in time, if they go to school, of course, or even homeschooling.
For this schooling block, what are they going to do? Do they just sit at the airport, and wait, and watch? Watch their mates having all the fun, and all the learning, and growth and all the joy that comes with learning and growing. Getting more confident with themselves, or are they going to choose a destination for themselves? It was really amazing. There were so many kids that said, "I've got to get a destination, I want to go fly on an aeroplane."
Martin: How do you help somebody find a destination if they're so used to sitting at the airport watching the planes come and go, and they've never actually created a destination or a goal? How do you help them do that?
Sandra: I think that is something they need to find for themselves, and just get back to what they're curious about. What they want to learn. It might not be anything huge, it might be something just little for themselves.
I think that you had some ideas on that one before in terms of what motivates people to get into action and to get into the process of wanting to learn something.
Martin: Yes. I think everybody's got that. At the end of the day, there's two primary motivators here, you either want to move towards pleasure, or away from pain. If you've got something that is driving you nuts in life, most people want to move away from that. They want to move towards a place where they feel comfortable. They feel loved. They feel like they're enjoying what they're doing. Moving towards that pleasure, things that make you feel good, and moving away from those things that are painful. As you say, it's probably a good place to start.
Sandra: I guess the challenge would be for anyone that's listening today is to double-check, are you just sitting at the airport, waiting for life to happen around you, or have you got a clear destination?
Martin: Have you bought your ticket, packed your bags, and on your way?
Sandra: Yes, and get on that plane, and take actions, and just see where it takes you.
Martin: Thanks for listening to today's episode of the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: If you found this episode useful, please comment on our website karate4life.com
Martin: Share it with your friends via social media and don't forget to tag us #karate4lifepodcast.
And if you've got a topic that you’d like us to cover in a future episode or questions about karate or life...
Sandra: Please send us a message, we'd be more than happy to share our thoughts.
Thanks again for joining us and stay tuned for the next episode which will be about 'What makes a good student, both in the dojo and in life'.
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