Interview with Michael Noonan Sensei - Part 3

Part 3 of an interview we did with Noonan Sensei some time ago. Noonan Sensei is currently the most senior ranked teacher of Chito-Ryu Karate-Do in Australia. In this episode he share a bit about the technical side of his training and his experiences training with 2nd Generation Soke.

—- Transcript —-

Sandra: Welcome back everybody. Today we are excited to be sharing with you part three of the five-part interview with Noonan-sensei.

Martin: And if you haven't already heard the first parts, be sure to go back and listen to the previous episodes.

Sandra: Yeah, do that before you go on to this one. But today, in today's episode, Noonan-sensei will continue sharing more about his experiences training in Japan, and he'll also share a few ideas on the technical side of his training, and that's going to be pretty interesting.

Martin: We've noticed everybody faces challenges in life, some big and some small, but not everyone has a way to navigate these problems.

Sandra: It's not always easy, but we found that we always keep coming back to what we've learned from our years in the dojo.

Martin: And that's what this podcast is all about.

Sandra: Helping us all find the solutions to last problems, or even better yet, to remove the problems before they arise.

Martin: This is Martin and Sandra Phillips, and welcome to the Karate4Life Podcast.

Sandra: So, could you share more about your training? You were being in a black belt. I was.

Short down. Your first time going to Japan.

Noonan Sensei: Yeah.

Sandra: Could you share more about the things that you did? Was it more kumite based?

Noonan Sensei: No, it was the same. Look, there was probably more basics than Soke does in the morning now. But I believe that's because he thinks our basics are not too bad now.

So we're doing okay. So we'll get these out of the way quick and move on to the other stuff. That's what I, that's my, that's how I perceive it.

But previous to that, it was always, we'd, I don't know how many punches we do, but it was like five, at least five minutes of seiken zuki or more. And then, you know, oi zuki, gyaku zuki, oshi zuki, rinten zuki, just over and over again. And then every single kick, gedan, chudan, kata, again, over and over and over and over again.

Not a lot of stretching, a bit of conditioning, you know, quite a few push-ups and cat stretches were big at that time. So I was really into those. Some, a little bit of kaishu at that stage, that first stage, a little bit of open hand.

But the biggest thing was he was always telling me, you know, tanden, you got to use your tanden. He liked the fact that I, and much to the chagrin of others, because it was probably, I wasn't sure, I know in Japanese culture, it's not that polite to keep questioning people about things. But I didn't know that, so I didn't care because I didn't know.

So I just had a million questions and I used to just continually ask them and I know that it probably upset other people in the dojo, but I don't care now. Maybe I should, but it doesn't bother me now because it's helped me along my way. So I asked a lot of questions continually and all sorts of questions about everything, whether it was basic, kata, it didn't matter.

But he was really responsive to that and I know many years later and in the 90s when he was talking to a couple of the gents from the United States, he said to them, you know, something along the lines of, words to the effect that, you know, he asked so many questions continually and that's good, you should ask. So I realised many, many years later, after people had told me that's bad, of course, you know, I got the rap on the knuckles and you shouldn't ask that many questions and blah, blah, blah. I got a rap on the knuckles for that from different people.

I still kept asking questions though, because my, for me, my learning was more important than how polite asking question was or not. Make what, you know, make out of that whatever you want, but that's how I felt. I'm there to learn.

It's a great opportunity and I'm not there forever, so I've got to make the best of it.

Sandra: That's great. So I'm going to, buddy, and I apologise.

Noonan Sensei: Please.

Sandra: I'm sure my husband, Martin, was talking about, you're quite famous at the sohonbu of breaking makiwara.

Noonan Sensei: Oh yeah, yeah, I forgot that. I just want to.

Sandra: I'd forgotten that. I remember going there one year myself, I had to go and rebuild one with Mark Waterfield sensei.

Noonan Sensei: And then I broke that one.

Sandra: Yeah, do you want to, I mean, maybe share what a makiwara is, because they might not know.

Noonan Sensei: Well yeah, well you can get a camera and then have a look at them, put them up later, but it's, so in Japan the makiwara that we use is, it's about eight foot long, and I'm not sure the, do you know the timber that they use? It's a particular Japanese timber that we don't have here. We usually use Oregon here, which is pretty good for them, but it starts like a square base and it goes up to a couple inches across and quite thin at the top, so it's nice and flexible.

And it's about four foot in the ground and about four foot out of the ground, and they're not supposed to break, that's the reality. They're not supposed to break, they're supposed to flex. flex, flex, flex.

Anyway, I can't remember what year it was, but Soke had been across to Australia and he took me for a walk. He said, come on, let's walk, okay? And you know, I'm kind of jumping along beside him like a little puppy and he slows me down.

He said, no, no, step, feel your weight in your body, feel your, and he went on and on and I started to think about it and I started trying to apply it to my karate. I think I was about, I was going to challenge for my yondan at that time, but honestly I couldn't put a year on it. It was in the nineties and so I went and I had a makiwara at home and it was like just, you know, sometimes those light bulb moments you can, and that's something that everyone should realise when you train.

If you just keep training, no matter how hard you suck at it for a while, something will happen, but you've got to stick to it for that to happen. You've got to keep the training up for that to happen. If you're not training, well, it won't happen.

It's not like you can watch someone on YouTube doing karate and then suddenly you'll be able to do it. That's never going to happen. There's too many of those people around.

We'll talk about that later anyway. But so, you know, I put all this together in my mind and my body and I went home and I hit my makiwara just once and it just broke. And then I thought, now, wow, now, am I like, you know, wow, have I really done this?

Or this has been out in the elements. Might have been a bit weak now. It's been around.

Who knows? So I went over to Japan and they had two makiwara. And I went and started to hit the makiwara and I broke the makiwara.

And then I can't remember if it was the same year. I don't think it was the same year. No, I don't think it was.

But I went back another year and I broke the other one. And I know they had to rebuild it. And I apologise because it's a horrible thing putting in a makiwara.

I did, you know, pay my dues, my penance for that, because when we went back in 2012, there was no makiwara. Because I think I broke three or four. And then a friend of mine at the time up in Newcastle had a couple and I broke his too.

So I got, I think I had seven makiwara notched up under my, on my belt that I'd broken. And it wasn't just my little flimsy ones or anything that, it wasn't like that. They were all proper makiwara.

And so I got my, I bought, I ordered the wood before I went there and I got them to get it in. And we, my students and they dug a, we all did a, dug a big hole. We put them, it was like a ceremony almost.

And we put the new makiwara in. So today there is a makiwara in the Sohonbu and I, I won't be hitting it just in case. Just in case.

So yeah, that's, that's a true story. That's a true story.

Sandra: I'm going to ask one more question for now. And I want you to go to the next part about, with Martin Sensei's questions for you, obviously, but just one more question about your journey. I guess a lot of people, when they're training, they'll go through, I guess, seasons, like, for example, one of my times, all the feedback that I got from Soke Sensei was you're just too tight, you're too tight, you're too tight.

And then a breakthrough moment comes. Something just makes sense. And you can kind of move beyond that.

Do you have that same kind of thing in your training at any point in time? Was there a consistent feedback at one stage for you?

Noonan Sensei: Oh, I think that's, I think Soke must say that to every single student. I know. I'm not sure if you've been told that, but I was told that.

I can't even mention the number of things that he's told me. I mean, he used to, he used to stand there and laugh. My karate was that bad.

I think, you know, he just used to laugh at me and shake his head. I just, you know, and I felt like, I really felt like, I don't think I'm ever going to get this. I got two left feet.

Nothing seems to want to work. He's telling me to do this. So I, you know, just too tight.

If he's only