Prestigious Award for Martial Artist - Article Example

Prestigious Award for Martial Artist Ian Barrie, one of the martial arts in Britain has recently awarded the prestigioustitle of Shihan in Nanbudo, in July, at a seminar in Barcelona, attended by more than 100 delegates. This award is significant because there are only 35 Shihans living in the world at present. Ian Barrie is the one among the only two living Shihans in Britain. The award Shihan is equivalent to a sixth Dan black belt. Shihan is an award consisting of a red and white belt. It is presented in a peculiar manner. Both the award presenter and the receiver sit on their knees while presenting this ward. On the other hand others, normally the martial arts students who are taking part in this award ceremony are also sitting on their knees while presenting this award. Ian Barrie is currently working as an instructor at Gorioch Sports centre which is one of the topmost sports training centres in Britain. For the last 30 years, he has worked in this Sports centre, training hundreds of people in martial arts especially in Nanbudo. He is giving trainings to the students Gorioch Sports centre only two days in a week; Monday and Thursday evening, whereas on Saturday evening he gives training at the Kinellar Community Hall. Nanbudo is practicing only in fifteen countries worldwide at present. Like most of the other martial arts, Nanbudo has also its origin or roots in traditional Japanese style of Karate. It should be remembered that there are many styles of karate practicing globally at present. Chinese styles and Japanese styles of karate are the most prominent ones at present and Nanbudo’s resemblance is more towards the Japanese style of Karate. In Nanbudo, even though most of the actions and steps are similar to that of Karate, the defence and offence techniques are more polished or restructured to make them more effective. New levels of effectiveness and difficulty levels were incorporated in Nanbudo and hence it considered as an independent section of martial art. Unlike Karate, Nanbudo gives more importance to the defence techniques. Nanbudo originated in Japan in the late 1970’s. The name Nabudo was derived from the name of the founder Yoshinao Nanbu. It teaches the traditional Japanese way of battle. Nanbudo was devised by incorporating some of the techniques of Japanese martial arts systems such as aikido, karate and judo. Nanbudo is devised based on four holistic concepts; breathing, energy manipulation, flexibility of movement, and mental strength. Apart from using as a self defence mechanism, Nanbudo can be used for health benefits also since it strengthens the physical and mental aspects of people who practice it. High blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, joint pains, some kind of psychological problems etc are some of the diseases which can be treated with the help of Nanbudo. Deep breathing techniques are necessary for the development of physical and mental strength. Deep breathing is one of the major remedies for many of the psychological problems. Deep breathing helps a person to consume more oxygen and hence the blood circulation levels to the brain would be increased. More oxygen is always good for the better functioning of the brain systems. Deep breathing helps a person to exercise the energy effectively whenever it is required. Nanbudo emphasizes more on flexible movements which helps the person to defend the attacks more effectively. Apart from his own movements, a Nanbudo practitioner will give more attention to the movements of the opponents also in order to tackle the attacks of the opponents more effectively. Mental strength is the primary requirement for a Nanbudo practitioner which is developed with the help of vigorous training and other holistic exercises. Nanbudo movements are based on the natural movements. Nanbudo never tries to make use of difficult unnatural movements. All the elements and patterns of the movements of the Nanbudo practitioner are indebted to the nature. These movements help the Nanbudo practitioner to strengthen his body and mind so that the mental stress levels while tackling the opponents would be considerably reduced. Even though, Nanbudo is a self defence mechanism, at times, it make use of weapons such as the Bo (six foot staff) and Bokken (sword). However, Nanbudo practitioners make use of the weapons only at the unavoidable circumstances. In normal cases, Nanbudo practitioner make use of techniques such as punches, strikes, kicks, throws, locks etc. In short, Nanbudo is a kind of martial art originated in Japan and currently practicing in more than 15 countries. It helps a person to maintain his physical and mental health along with tackling any attack towards him. This article seems to be an incomplete one. Instead of explaining more, the author tried to limit this article in few words. It would have been better if the author explained all these things in few more words. The author tries to accommodate so many things in few words and hence the readers are not getting enough details either about Ian Barrie or about Nanbudo. This article says that Ian Barrie is only the second person in Britain who got this prestigious award. At the same time the article says nothing about the first person. Some details about the first person would have improved the clarity of the article more. Moreover, this article says nothing about how old Ian Barrie is or for how long he is taking Nanbudo classes. Moreover it says nothing about the family of Ian Barrie. Some descriptions about the family and the age of Ian Barrie would have raised the standard of this article. Apart from using as a marital art, Nanbudo is practiced at different parts of the world for health benefits. However, this article says nothing about such things. More descriptions about the benefits of practicing Nanbudo would have improved the utility of this article. At the same time this article succeeded in giving some ideas about Nanbudo even though it says nothing about the various movements in Nanbudo. Moreover, this article gives the readers the contact details of Ian Barrie which would enable those who interested in knowing more about Ian Barrie, to collect information directly from him. Ian’s mobile phone number and the web site address have been provided to help the readers to contact Ian directly. Another strong point of this article is the photograph of the award ceremony. This photograph helped the readers to know more about how the title of Shihan in Nanbudo is presented. Also this photograph helped the readers more in recognizing the colour and features of the red and white belt presented. This article seems to be targeting only one segment of readers; those who are interested in martial arts. In normal cases, youths are interested more in learning more about martial arts. In other words this article is satisfying the needs of only the youths. If the author was successful in enclosing more details about the health benefits of practicing Nanbudo, probably adults or aged people would have read it with more interest. However, the author’s primary intention was only to target the martial art loving youths. In my opinion, this article seems to be an average one after comparing both the merits and demerits. This article says nothing about the author name or the publication medium. It says nothing about the date of publication also. The inclusion of the author name, date of publication and the medium of publication could have improved the standard of this article. At the same time it succeeded in giving some brief ideas about Nanbudo and Ian Barrie. In short, this article seems to be an average one and I am giving five marks out of ten to this article. Read More