I Think This Is Great! with Clay N. Ferno

Happy Birthday, Sensei How I learned to count and breathe with Uechi-Ryu claynferno.substack.com (http://claynferno.substack.com) It starts with the breath. I learned to count in Japanese when my Dad and I took on the ultimate 80s father/son bonding exercise by taking Karate together. I am sorry, but I somehow have yet to watch Cobra-Kai. The Karate Kid craze in the 80s and early 90s was a real thing, and we were all about it. We studied under Sensei Michael and Sensei Linda. We had to drive to get there and were sure not to forget our gi when leaving the house because there was a ‘three strikes and you are out’ penalty for forgetting your gi at home. Uechi-Ryū Karate-Do My Dad used to smoke, and he had his cigarettes in his red t-shirt pocket by his heart. One of the training exercises we did was to face each other, our forearms pressed against each other. In a kind of “hot hands” or reverse arm wrestle, the point was to stare your opponent down, quickly move your arm away from the other person and land a st