Kalaripayattu - Indian Martial Arts

During my visit to India, I was fortunate to experience the beautiful ancient art of Kalaripayattu.  In my daddy's hometown of Kudduthuruthy, I walked to the Kalari Payattu center to watch, learn, and discover this incredible art form.  This is the oldest known form of martial arts that is said to have derived from ancient Vedic Times, and has its base in Kerala, India.  Tracing back over 3,000 years the name translates into "field of battle". The style if martial art is said to have inspired Kung Fu and most every other style of battle.

Students are required to find the raw power from majestic animals like the lion, tiger, elephant, wild boar, snake and crocodile, in the art of Kalari payattu.  The entrance of every Kalari establishment faces the East, the South West area is the "poothara", is a 7 their platform meant to house the guardian deity, and be an place of worship and prayer before every lesson.  Students touch the ground, the poothara, and the Guru's feet to symbolize respect and submission to their Guru.  The Teacher is also known as the Asan guides the students to develop the 4 powers of the practice.

· Meikaruthu: power of the body.
· Manakaruthu: power of the mind.
· Ankakaruthu: power to combat.
· Ayudhakaruthu: power to wield weapons.

The four stages of learning are meipayattu or maithari (body), kolthari (sticks), angathari (metal weapons), verumkai (without weapon or empty hand).  Students learn how to wield over 13 different types of weaponry.  Though the movements require committed practice and determination, I quickly realized I need more time to study this art, and I was teaching and studying yoga at the time, so it was not going to happen.  It was amazing to watch how this discipline is still being taught my my fathers local hometown.  

How to Choke a Yogi?...Harmony by Karate Style

How to choke a yogi? Actually it's more like how to teach a Yogi to choke, and escape from a choke hold. Growing up my older brother enjoyed practicing wrestling moves on me, and I admit I loved being "airplane spun in the air" and various other activities that big brothers put their baby sisters through. Physical challenges have always excited me, last year I was happy to do the Fire walk with the Tony Robbins UPW event. This year, I challenge myself with the ongoing physical challenges in my weekly Karate class. I find myself slightly nervous when I enter the class. The instructors and classmates at Harmony by Karate are awesome!!! They are so helpful in the process of educating people in martial arts. Kudos to Sensei Oscar who guided us in a beautiful breath work movement based class in December, it really was awesome. Kudos to Sensei Adam who introduced Choke holds this week. WOW, was I nervous! I am not a fan of choking, kicking, hitting etc, and I am challenging my limits by diving into this awesome weekly class, so I am still working through the nerves! I cam sing in front of crowds of thousands, no nerves, teach group and private yoga classes to just about anyone, and no nerves, but ask me to spar with another person, and a different energy starts to spark inside me. It really is not in my nature, and I love the challenge! If I had the choice of styles of battle, I would prefer a battle of wits over anything physical, but unfortunately wits cannot get you out of every situation.

Once again, we partnered up and practiced "choking" and escaping. Sensei Adam demonstrated many methods and had us go through the movements. Towards the end of class I was partnered with my friend, Sensei Joseph. Sensei Joseph is no joke, he is an accomplished Black Belt, and while he is my friend, he is not afraid to challenge me. He could see my intimidation, and talked me through, pushed me to use my body and escape. While I tend to giggle in excitement/mini celebrate when I do the given task, especially because I consider myself still very new to the world of martial arts, I quickly learned it is more than just going through the motions. The amazing thing about Karate is "focus". A situation can arise within a second, and if you lose focus, you can lose a lot. Sensei Joseph literally flipped me over, and I did not even see it coming!!!?? It reminded me of days when my big brother would flip me over! I have to admit, it felt awesome, but it taught me the importance of "focus" in Karate and martial arts. In Yoga our focus in inward, observing our spirit, mind and body, inevitably becoming detached to the world, which is beautiful. In Karate, we have to have focus inward and outward because we are dealing with another persons spirit, mind and body, which is also beautiful. Karate teaches you to maintain focus in order to be ready for any circumstance. In true Sensei Adam style, we ended the class with grueling drills, that apparently someone does to him??? Maybe that is why he enjoys putting us through the gauntlet? Thank you so much to the family at Harmony by Karate for enlightening me, challenging me, and teaching me to deepen my focus.

Harmony By Karate- How Karate Saved my Life

Years ago, when I taught the PreK class in the Reebok Sports Club, one of my friends/co-workers (Sensei Joseph) introduced me to Sensei John. Sensei John and the team of Black Belt Instructors at the Karate school always displayed a genuine kindness that always stood out to me. Fast forward to 2010, I was invited to participate in a lovely meditation at the dojo led by my friend Sensei Joseph. The meditation was in honor of the 9/11 tragedy, and was meant to bring unity within diversity, and celebrate humanity despite tragedy. The meditation was beautiful. It was there that Sensei John asked me if I knew anyone who could help the kids classes, in exchange learn Karate. Though my schedule has been pretty busy, I volunteered myself because I was reminded of the outstanding energy I always experienced with the family of workers at Harmony by Karate.

Twice a week I have the great privilege to join the brilliant team of Sensei's at Harmony By Karate, located in the Reebok Sports Club, to teach the Kids Karate Class. I bring the Yoga stretching to the kids and witness a beautiful way to teach kids discipline through Karate. These kids learn traditional forms, drills, and exercises while the Sensei always ties in inspiring words and things to think about.

Initially, I was reluctant to do the Karate for myself. The work outs are no joke, and force me to use my muscles in different ways than I do in yoga. While I know that martial arts was inspired by yoga, by nature, I am not aggressive, confrontational, or anything like that, so I was intimidated to be in this black belt Karate class. Unlike in yoga, there is no "childs pose" in Karate. In the class I have been doing katas, kicks, punches, chops, rolls, drops, kart wheels, hand stands, push ups, one arm push ups, and much more!!! One night we worked on yelling "STOP!!" to our partner and pushing them. This was hard for me, as my partner was my friend, Sensei Joseph. Each time I looked at his face I found myself smiling and giggling. He forced me to dig deep, and I did it.

This simple exercise nearly saved my life the following weekend. When I was on the subway, traveling early to Manhattan to teach Yoga, a man sat next to me, placed his arm around my shoulder and kissed my cheek within one second (literally when I blinked). I was so startled, I yelled "Ewww Gross, Please get away from me!" and pushed myself free. The man was startled and moved, I walked to another train car. While it may seem funny that I used the word "please" when I yelled, a year ago, when I was faced with a similar scary incident on the subway, I just froze in fear. This time, thanks to my experience at Karate, I diverted a potentially life threatening situation! Thank you to Sensei John, Sensei Joseph, Sensei Adam, Sempai Ferriha, Sempai David, and Sempai Leonard for welcoming me to your team and providing me with tools that I will cherish forever.

Many women have the limiting belief that it is not in their nature to be aggressive. The necessary confidence and skills can be taught with a wonderful self defense class or Martial Arts.

Pictured: Sensei Adam, Ambria, Sensei Joseph, Sempai David