This new website makes it so easy for me to add new content that I’ve been able to put out this “bonus podcast”! I’ve called it a bonus podcast because this is not the scheduled “official podcast” – which will be on stances and be out in a week or so – but an extra podcast on 10 books that I recommend you read (not one of which was written by me … I’m assuming you’ve already got all those ;-).
Here is the latest podcast! It’s been a little while since the last one due to all the time being spent on getting the new website up and running. We are back on track now though and I have a few podcasts ready to record and roll out as we go.
Welcome to the longest podcast we have ever done! This month’s podcast follows on from last month’s on the grading system and the black belt. I received a lot of requests for more information on what I felt a syllabus should include and what a dan grade should be. So I picked up a copy of my syllabus and clicked the record icon on my laptop. The resulting “stream of consciousness” is this month’s podcast.
In this month’s podcast we discuss the always controversial subject of the grading system and the coveted black belt. On internet forums, message boards, and in the letters pages in the martial arts magazines we frequently find discussion on how standards are falling, the black belt does not mean what it once did and that there is no uniform standard anymore. So in this podcast I’d like to give my take on the black belt and the plusses and pitfalls associated with the grading system in general.
This month’s podcast is a cardiovascular martial arts workout! It’s been a while since we have done a workout podcast and I’d been receiving lots of requests for one. All you need for this one is a little space and some light dumbbells. You then play the podcast and work along with it for a 23 minute training session that involves various cardiovascular exercises, muscular endurance exercises, and various types of shadow fighting!
It’s officially our 30th podcast! I say “officially” because we’ve done things like double-podcasts and workout podcasts in the past. Regardless, I’m classing this as our 30th podcast … and it’s my website so no one can stop me! Thanks to you all for your support of the podcasts. The amount of downloads is fantastic (and pushing our bandwidth limits!). I’m truly delighted that so many of you are finding these podcasts useful.
Happy 2010 everyone! Is it just me or have the 10 years since the millennium flown by!? The passage of time is what inspired this first podcast of the new decade. In it I discuss the influence “history” can have on today’s martial practise. It is my view that history can lead to ever increasing efficiency and growth, or stagnation and death depending upon how we view the martial practises passed on to us through history.
In this month’s podcast I’d like to look at what I feel are the three biggest errors made by karateka today. As regular listeners will know, I like to keep my podcasts positive as it is way too easy to stand back and point out what is wrong with the martial arts.
In this latest podcast we look at what kata actually is and what purpose it serves. Kata can be a kind of shadow-fighting, a physical exercise, a form of moving mediation, a pointless dance, a relic that should be consigned to history, a repository of forgotten “secrets”, and a whole host of other things besides. All of these views on what kata is can have merit depending upon what is meant by “kata”. However, none of them get to the heart of the matter in my view. In this podcast I explain what I see as the core purpose of kata.