Author Archives: Andrew Adams

It’s been about nine months since I acquired my Century Martial Arts Versys VS.1 free-standing training bag and I thought a short review might be helpful to someone who might stumble onto this blog. TL; DR I like this bag a lot but it is definitely a compromise. Construction The bag is very well builtContinue reading “Review of Century VS.1 Bag”

The il dan blue pattern has been my most challenging pattern to date and given the COVID restrictions on  training and testing in the dojang (imposed both by the health department and myself), I’ve had more than the normal time between tests to work on this one. The pattern goes like this.  Begin in aContinue reading “Il Dan Blue Pattern”

I’ve long been fascinated by people who deliver flawless performances requiring complicated skills and that are executed with seeming effortlessness.  I’m thinking of people like John Baptiste whose hands wander almost absent-mindedly over the piano keys and unleash the most beautiful, improvised music. Or Danny MacAskill riding his mountain bike with such amazing grace andContinue reading “Until I Never Get It Wrong”

For a while now I’ve been thinking about creating a post centered on each of our style’s patterns (kata).  This desire has been growing steadily over the past few “COVID months” as I’ve been spending so much time training alone in the basement dojang; training in a deliberate and conscious manner, trying to identify weaknesses,Continue reading “Musings on the White-Senior Pattern”

During my last self-directed karate practice, I had an insight regarding the il dan the speed drills. For quite a while I’ve been aware of how the rear left leg swing kick, the one that follows from starting in the right front stance, feels more awkward than the rear right leg swing kick that followsContinue reading “Il Dan Speed Drills and a Heavy Left Leg”

This past Thursday, for the first time since 14 March, we trained with the other people from our dojang, though of course, not at the dojang. Instead, we were outside and separated by safe distances. One the one hand, it was really nice to see our friends IRL. On the other hand, the range ofContinue reading “The Basement Dojang, Born of COVID”