Sunday, 30 August 2020

39 years of karate: from my beginnings

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 Today I trained on my 39th year of Karate, literally today. I'm still just a beginner, but more keen than ever in my own training and a...
Sunday, 23 August 2020

The 3 LEVELS of JIYU IPPON kumite development

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Today I thought I’d focus on Jiyu Ippon Kumite and its three levels of development (and a fourth level, actually not an 'additional leve...
Sunday, 16 August 2020

気法拳

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Today my training focused on junansei (softness) and kokyu (breathing). Accordingly, the kata of my practice was 気法拳 (Kihouken) and lots of ...
Thursday, 13 August 2020

TECHNICAL ADAPTABILITY

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Jiyu Kumite at the seaside with my student Matt Brew (Yondan).   I was recently asked why I can hit people with such a wide variety of techn...
Wednesday, 12 August 2020

Diaphragmic Breathing

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  I was asked “What are the first things I teach in Karate?” So, in the same light, of my last post I thought I'd answer that here today...
Monday, 3 August 2020

GENERAL FLEXIBILITY TRAINING

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As an instructor many people question me on different topics. Obviously, it is impossible to answer all these questions and everyone, howeve...
Saturday, 1 August 2020

Andre Bertel only 'partially trains in Japan'???

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Recently I was messaged that someone was propagating online that " Andre Bertel only 'partially trains' in Japan "... What...
Thursday, 23 July 2020

TRAIN HARD AND TRAIN SMART

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A few days back I turned 44. I am not into birthdays, but I am happy to enter a summer break from today. My only job was to visit the dojo ...
Monday, 20 July 2020

Movement one of Heian Shodan: SHIN GI TAI

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Today I will use the first movement of Heian Shodan, in isolation, as a means to broadly look at karate technique: body. mind and heart/sp...
Wednesday, 8 July 2020

The Kinetic Chain

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The kinematic chain, more often referred to as the ‘kinetic chain’ is a  biomechanical term for describing human movements; in particular, ...