Soshin, beginners mind

Yes, my friends, I am struggling to find my inner Soshin. Probably I am not humble enough (I knew that) but this week has been a challenge to my endurance.

No, two months of inactivity and my injuries are not excuses for how bad I performed these days.

I just joined a new club in my hometown and had a couple of classes there. I am mainly a karateka but decided to cross-train for a while in something new. Well, they just played with me. ALL of THEM.

All the time.

And this is hard to accept for someone with so many years of martial experience. You defeated so many people under so many different rule sets that being manhandled by so many people in so short time hurts. 

It is difficult to accept.

Me feeling like an ant

Yes, struggling to not give up.

My new training mates are expert grapplers. Really good. Better than 99% of other people I met in my life.

And that made me think that all the crappy grappling that we see in most today's bunkai videos are just a joke.

Anyone with just a bit of grappling experience (and there are many nowadays) will deactivate your bunkai in a split second.

It's not only that your bunkai is not useful, it is not that it wasn't designed to fight trained people: the main reason that most "grappling bunkais" will not work to save you is because you are not used to use it agains people who can grapple.

So, find some grappling partners and go for it.

Then, whatever works from your kata, keep it and train it like there is no tomorrow.

The rest?

Tray to find a way to use it.

If not, you are wasting your time.

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