Karate 4 Life by Martin & Sandra Phillips

Part 5 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 we put Noonan Sensei in the hot seat, and ask him a number of questions from some other Chito-Ryu instructors from around Australia. —- Transcript —- 015 - Michael Noonan Sensei interview - part 5 Sandra: Welcome back everybody. Today we are in our final part of the five-part interview with Noonan Sensei. Martin: And of course, if you've missed any of the first four parts, be sure to go back and have a listen to them. Sandra: Okay, so in this episode, Martin, we have Noonan Sensei in the hot seat. Martin: Yeah, so we're going to be asking him lots of questions from, that have been given to us from some other Chito-Ryu instructors from around Australia. Sandra: All right, let's get straight into it. 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've 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 life's 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. All right, so we've got some hot seat questions for you from some of the different instructors around this one. First one from Adam Higgins Sensei on the Gold Coast. So, in your younger years, you went through some hard physical training, conditioning, and do you believe this is necessary for young karate-ka who wish to pursue? Noonan Sensei: Oh, that's a very good question. Do I think that physical, hard physical training is necessary? Yes, I do. I say that because, for me, it was because I didn't have any hard physical training. I didn't come into karate being athletic. I didn't come in as a gymnast or a great swimmer, or anything like that. So for me, definitely, it was necessary. Now, I can't speak for everybody. So there's probably certain people that might need a bit less of it, but I would say because the way we do technique is very unique, and the muscles we use also therefore must be tuned in a certain way, and certain ones must be strengthened. And so I would say that the exercises that we do are specific for the development of karate. I'll just make that clear. I don't believe that if you're a buff gym guy that that's enough physical exercise for karate. I'm not having a go at buff gym guys, but karate is so specific, and the things you need to develop and strengthen are so unusual in many ways, as you know. So yes, you do, but depending on what you've done before might be some variation in what you need to do, and how much. Martin: All right, next question from Mark Snow Sensei, who's just over in the corner, actually. Should have got him over here for this one. Can you explain shuhari in relation to your journey? Maybe just a brief explanation of what shuhari is first, I guess. Noonan Sensei: Okay, yeah. Shu is the basic part, to develop, to copy, you know, like a foundation. And the Ha part is to make it your own, and Ri part is to break away from that. Now, I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that give a broader, you can YouTube that and get a much better explanation, a much deeper one, but for the purpose of this conversation, that's pretty much it. How's it applied in my journey? Yeah, you know, I think it applies in everybody's journey. It's something that, if you really practice correctly, you can't escape from. If you don't follow this process, and I won't say it's, well, you know, I'm not sure, really. Maybe it's a long, drawn-out process where you've done this, and done that, and then you break. But in my mind, the longer I do it, I think it's a