Sport or no sport....

Hmmm..... I feel old.... No, thats not true..... I feel on the fringe of things is more precise.

I never did much sports, cause they bore me. The times i showed up for competitions, i usually won something, so its not that i am just down cause i have no successes. Its more that i really do not see the point. For me karate is all bout training, improving and plain just having fun. Deciding who is the "winner" or "loser" to me seems like a great way of shooting ourselves in the foot. (Not *that* many people can be the winner and how does the rest feel?)

Furthermore, when we look at how competitions are conducted, one often sees that its quite random who ultimately is determined the winner. Personal preference of the judges plays way too big part of the final result. Karate-do is (or should be, in my opinion) art, and who is qualified to decide who is more "arty"? This leads me to the conclusion that kata-competitions are *really* silly and should be skipped alltogether. Then kumite..... Hmmm.... Many points? Hardly seems to improve our ability to "kill with one blow"? Judges that are way inferior to the athletes they are passing judgements on? Rules that favor flashy techniques that leave you in big trouble in the real world? The overemphasis on being first in regards to timing? (Is it not cooler to be last....?) The constant discussions regarding how much contact? (Nobody seems to be any closer to agreeing what the correct level of contact should be, anyway) Coaches that reward aggressive behavior that puts our students at serious risk of injury? The fact that the competitions run for several hours and not even the families of the athletes can be bothered to show up?

In my opinion: Shobu ippon rules, 1 weightclass for males and one for females, no protectors except mouthguards + groinprotectors for males and breastprotectors for females. One competition pr year + the internal clubcompetition and maybe one friendly against another club.

This way we would not spend lots of energy supporting a style of karate that does very little to enhance our shotokan way of doing things. This would free up time and energy for trainingcamps, parties and oneday-events where everyone comes together to train. (And where everyone gets to do karate for more than 2 minutes....)

And good luck to all the participants of the IM.

:-)

hihi

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Greens.....

As some of you may have noticed, i have been drinking a fair amount of green stuff lately.... Why, i hear people ask..... Cause after listening to the worlds premier lifestyle coach, Tony Robbins, i am now certain that what we eat these days, is not what our bodies were designed to digest.

The consumption of excess amounts of sugar, carbohydrates (that transforms into sugar), dairy-products, alcohol and foods with face is a real problem for our health. All of these makes our inner balance go out of whack. (I am pretty sure that you like me have felt the extreme fatigue after binging on these kinds of foods.... We should maybe ask ourselfs why....?) The theory is that our body is too acidified and by eating wrong foods we compound the problem to a point where the body cant eliminate the acids successfully and we start to die..... (I may be paraphrasing a bit loosely, but not to the point of lying)

Tony Robbins Living Health-program is based on the research of microbiologist Dr Robert Young and below is a clip from CNN on Youtube.

I have not adopted all of his theories, but i have started in the right direction. I found a green powder that i mix in water and i also add some drops of a product called PH-booster. The two products together, makes it quite easy to alcalise and energize in a way that does not involve spending the whole day finding loads of different greens to prepare our alcalizing meals with.

Eventually i will move further and further into a greener diet, but for now i have just added 4 liters of greendrink a day, and after just 2 weeks on this, my cravings have noticeably diminished.

The products i use are found in Hagkaup and Heilsuhusid and is called Alkalive Green and Alkalive PH-booster, btw. In Iceland a month supply will cost just over 10.000 but ordered online through shopusa the cost will drop to about 8.000 (or less if you desire other products in addition to those 2) For more product-info: www.ph-ion.com

Dr Robert Young, author of the PH-Miracle

The Law of Attraction

Hmmmm..... The law of attraction....... The Secret..... hmmm....... Does it work....? Weeeell.... For the last 20 years the idea have popped up in my life, and i actually do believe in it. Time to apply.

Great book: "As a man thinketh" by James Allen

Time to focus on what i want, instead of what i dont want. I am done thinking about being tired or having too little money. From now on: I have abundance of energy, health and enough money to experience what life really is made of. Furthermore, my maegeri will be fabulous by the end of december 2008 and at that time i am also living in my own house. It will have a serious, serious bathroom, a 50" television, a fridge that makes icecubes on its own and with a private parking-space for my incredibly cool Mazda MX-5.

Life rocks and so will i. I doubledare you to join me in this quest for happiness.

:-)

Attitude / Training ethics...

In my opinion: Attitude and proper training-ethics are the two most important things, when it comes to improving anything. I furthermore think that both can be decided upon having or developing if you find yourself desiring some level of excellence.

Lets discuss karate as our topic of choice.... If you dont have either of those, then i predict that your karate will be very weak and lacking any kind of technical prowess (Yes, i toss in big words to look smart-ish.... hihi) Training-ethics without attitude is one step better, but the karate-result usually is something that looks very pleasing, but doesnt really work as self-defence or in kumite-competition. Attitude only, will also get you part of the way, if the goal is to become a well-rounded karateka. This groups advantage will be in the practical application, though. (I think they often can fight and win in the dojo or in the street)

With both attitude and a strong training-ethic, i think "real karate" is attainable. Attitude: Applying yourself mentally as hard as you can, never backing down. Training ethic: Make your classes a priority and do something extra all the time. Something extra, what do i mean? A trainingcamp or two pr year, some solo-training before or after class, a slow jog or two a week, a bit of pushups / situps every other day or whatever else you see your karate needs.

OR NOT!! And this part is important.... Do karate for *your* reasons and above all, have fun with it. Furthermore, dont give up on yourself if you have some lofty goals and dont put yourself down in the process. Its ok to be self-critical so that you dont stop trying hard, but its not productive to tell yourself that you are hopeless and should give up everything cause it will never improve.

ANYTHING you go after with your brain and body, will improve vastly over time. You have to go after it, though, or it wont get better, whatever it is you desire. (Wow, i sound way older than i feel.... :-$ )

The phone incident.....

My cellphone had a tragic, unfortunate impact with a hard object, so i have lost all my phone numbers... Feel free to email me your number so that i am not all alone in the world if i get another phone....

Any suggestions as to what phone would be cool to get? I think i want a decent camera on it and video is also nice to have in good quality. Not too big and no clamshell ideas, thanks.