August 15, 2008 at 2:54 am
We had a tradition (probaly local)
Of doing a thousand strokes with bokken on the anniversity.
I was elevated to first dan after Sensei Chiba witnessed a perfect throw (irimi tenkan. kotogase)
So, i was entitled to the hakama.. During a demo I faced a woman (and womem wear hakama)
I hit the wall about six feet up... Ouch..
August 15, 2008 at 8:12 am
physic77 (8/15/2008)
Chalk up one more for the martial arts geeks, I did about 5 years of Ju Jitsu and about 3 years of TKD a number of years back, and even though I gave them up years ago I think what I learnt there still helps to improve me as a person today.Our office has an unofficial sports night one day a week as well, where a number of us knock off early and play tennis or badminton depending on the weather - there's nothing like slamming an ace past the colleague who criticised your work earlier that day 😉
Likewise, TKD benefits my life on a daily basis. I find it interesting how many of us note how influential martial arts has been on our lives.
A good portion of my department at work plays basketball together on Mondays and Tuesdays each week. It's great stress relief and bonding.
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|Ted Pin >>
August 15, 2008 at 8:44 am
I agree with what Steve said about taking care of your body and how it will help the rest of your life. In so many ways I feel that the mind, body, and soul all need to be healthy in order to achieve the higher ground.
I had a phone interview the other day and the person on the other end asked me how I dealt with stress. My answer came in two parts. First I addressed how I handle the stress immediately in a work environment (I figured that was more important to the person on the other end) and then I also added that I do physical activity. In my case it is swimming. It's obvious that the physical activity makes me feel better but it also helped me nail that question. So there you have it. Physical activity helping out in ways that I had not even imagined until the unknown became obvious later on.
August 26, 2008 at 8:57 am
I enjoyed reading all the posts. When I first saw the "SQLSERVER" email, I thought I was seeing things when I saw O'Sensei in it. I have the same picture.
I have been doing martial arts my entire life. Started with TKD and some others in my younger years. I started Aikido about 20 years ago. It's a very interesting martial art. It is entirely defensive and used to end the incident without doing harm to anyone. Don't be fooled it is a very powerfull art. My sensei is 2 from the founder (took from Tohei).
Relating this to IT and the business world. Aikido and any art is a great way to relax and blend with others. Many IT people have a hard time dealing with others. I know many IT programmers that just code all day and don't really know how to relate to others. We are geeks. It's good to relate and get some exercise for stress reliever. Plus, you learn how to protect yourself.
What make Aikido different is the "ki" side of it... Some schools don't teach it. I was lucky my sensei learned it from the original students (Tohei) of O'Sensei. Being relaxed and learning how to focus have helped me in the business. How many times does a meeting get heated or people start to argue. Having good "ki" is very important in life. You are at your strongest when you are relaxed. One other point of "ki"... As we age, our mind and body seperate. A young baby has great "ki". Try taking a rattle away from a 10lb baby. It's hard. I have heard stories about women lifting a car to save their child. When the mind and body come together, we are very powerfull.
The bottom line is to take care of yourself (exercise your body and mind). Relax.........
June 21, 2013 at 1:19 am
I agree with the article, finding some stress reliever after work is important for me. I do lot of mountainbiking, mainly enduro and downhill. We are about 4-5 DBA's/developers/sysadmin on the group I ride with, so seems to be a good sport to do to release stress. You must be concentrated when going fast downhill, avoiding trees, rocks, landing the jumps, taking corners, etc.
June 21, 2013 at 3:09 am
Used to play a lot of Golf - After a hard day it was great to get on the Driving range
because every ball had a name 😀
June 21, 2013 at 3:35 am
Brilliant! Too true and the comment came at a time when I was literally about to lambast a developer for not following the correct procedure. this post made me sit back and think my response through. I am a martial artist and have been for most of my life. I have studied Wushin, Karate, Kickboxing, Brazilian Jui jitsu and my latest flavor is Kali. I think part of the reason is to relieve the built-in tension that's a side effect of our job, but I also study because I watched WAY too many Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li movies:)
regards,
Ronan
June 21, 2013 at 10:27 am
While I don't have any experience in martial arts, I can definitely concur that physical fitness is a great help when dealing with a stressful work situation. A previous employer had a company subsidized gym on the premises. Even when things got bad, which was most of the time in my last few years there, 30 minutes on the elliptical machine in my target heart rate zone did wonders in improving my disposition.
Right now, I am doing P90X, which includes a yoga program. The 'tip of the day' for that one is to forget about all of the stuff you were doing before, and everything you have to do afterwards. Yoga is definitely worth checking out, whatever your fitness regimen is. The St. Johns mens basketball team started doing yoga when Steve Lavin took over, and has had near-zero injuries since. I can actually touch my toes for the first time I can remember, and colorful language is no longer required to get thru the more challenging poses (Warrior 3, half moon, right angle pose, prayer twists).
June 21, 2013 at 11:01 am
Steve,
As a young man I tried several martial arts, Karate, Tai-Kwon-Do, Jui-Jit-Su and Judo. It was when I went back to college after a stint in the service (USCG) that I took up Aikido. Translated Ai-Ki-Do means ThePath-ToPower-ThroughHarmony. I studied Aikido in the dojo for 10 years, and then like you got caught up in life and family, but I never stopped practicing the preceipts of Aikido in my everyday life. For excercise, I returned to my roots as a swimmer, but even in that I practice ThePath-ToPower-ThroughHarmony. This also is how I work in the professional world, and I have found good success following the same preceipts as I did on the mat 3 decades ago. Balance is everything! Harmony in my databases is joy! Power in my procedures gets the job done! AiKiDo-IT 😉
Brandon Forest
June 21, 2013 at 4:23 pm
Agreed completely with finding some kind of stress relief outside of the coding world. My martial arts training leans more towards the mental than the physical though. I've found that the need to focus on your body and what you're doing with it works wonders when it comes to calming the mind, and that (for myself) the faster-paced martial arts don't help me as much during the day.
I've practiced Kyudo for just over 10 years (although I've been on a hiatus from my training since January) and the need to be present in the form helps quite a bit with leaving the stress behind. About half of our dojo is in IT and each one of us has come in with stories about how the mental discipline that we learn has kept us from going off on someone after a particularly frustrating day.
I tried Aikido about five years ago, kept at it for about a year, but never got good enough at forward rolls and kept hurting my neck when I tried. I enjoyed the discipline, and loved the weapons work, but I had to give it up when the injuries were interfering with my Kyudo (it's hard to stand sideways to the target and shoot looking over your shoulder when you can't turn your head more than 45 degrees to the left 🙁 ).
I've since started Tai Chi and love it. We do learn some of the practical uses for the forms we're learning, and have been learning weapons forms alongside the weaponless form, and my class is just starting to work on push hands. I find it an extremely satisfying energy expenditure (and it's done very good things for my health), but again, the mental discipline has helped me in my corporate life far beyond the physical work (it's much harder to step away from your desk for five minutes to beat on something than it is to step away for five minutes to meditate until you've calmed down from whatever has pissed you off.)
Jennifer Levy (@iffermonster)
June 22, 2013 at 10:02 am
On a totally different topic I really enjoyed SQL in the City London 2013 and just for thoughts you can really make money with manure as I told Steve (http://www.compostman.co.uk/really-rotten-manure) - I suggested to take back some English roses for the lady.
In the end doing gardening can be as back cracking but as joyful - I too a delight taking pictures of my wife's iris flowers today (Saturday) and hope to see them flower again next year despite the odds of moving. After all getting these flowers to bloom takes between 2 and 3 years - similarly to get an idea planted and a result showing in business.
June 24, 2013 at 11:42 am
So I'm the only one who uses a couple ounces of good vodka and a jalapeno-stuffed olive for stress relief?
June 24, 2013 at 2:38 pm
I practice T'ai Chi and yoga but I am not above drinking a couple of glasses of wine.
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