Her name is Yoshimi...

One of the things I most love about shotokan karate is its universality. I get a nerdy thrill out of watching kata videos from Spain and Israel and Japan and recognizing the exact same movements and sequences that I practice and obsess over on an almost-daily basis. Like dance, karate really defies the language barrier. Although I can't understand most other languages, there's a certain subcultural connection that I feel with karate people worldwide, because of the intricacy and difficulty of our shared art. I love anticipating the turn and the punch and the snap of the gi, and knowing (to an extent) how the performer's muscles tensed or locked or suspended during this or that movement. They've probably struggled with some of the same techniques as me, cursing quietly in a myriad of different languages at the same exact stuff that I have--and yet (like me) appreciating the challenge all the while.
Martial arts are sort of masochistic beasts.

I'm definitely not naturally great at karate, but I absolutely love it, even though (or maybe because) I have to work really hard for every centimeter of improvement that I acquire. I'm not a fast physical learner, but I am thorough, and I like understanding how movements work and why. I hope someday (probably thirty years from now) I'll be able to instruct in my own community, wherever I end out. I'd run my dojo exactly like Reed does.


This is one of the katas (karate forms) I'm learning right now at Saturday morning practice. It's called Gojushiho-sho, and if you can get your hips going well enough when you perform it, your gi makes a series of fantastic swishing and popping noises that I love. And it's a formidable kata aside from that.
I thought y'all should see.
(Note that none of these people are me; I am a lowly green belt.)

And this (called Heian Godan) is the kata I have to perform for my next test. This clip is not an especially dynamic performance, but admittedly, if I could do it this well, I'd shit a brick. (It's more difficult than it looks; just try.)