Well, I started playing Chess when I was about 8 or 9 when I found an old Chess set at my Granny's place and my Uncle Bill showed me the moves. I think that I played one game and then fooled around with the pieces for a bit and then that was it. Somehow I became interested in the game again when I was about ten or eleven, I found a book in the school library which was, I believe, by Irving Chernev that had numerous games of chess in descriptive notation. I figured out the notation and started playing through the games. So I started playing more with Uncle Bill and with other kids. Most of the time I could beat the kids, but I didn't beat Bill for a few years, probably not until I was fourteen or so.
Of course what really got me hooked was the Spassky-Fischer match in 1972. I seem to recall that I initially hoped that Fischer would get a dose of humility in this match, but, as it progressed, I became a supporter of Fischer. After that match I was playing fairly regularly against Bill and I even played in a simultaneous exhibition against a local Grand Master, Abe Yanofsky, which I lost.
Then there was an international Tournament at the University of Winnipeg in 1974, I think it was called the Pan-Am Championships. I attended this event and helped out by monitoring the demonstration boards. I also played in my first organized tournament. I'm not sure if I even won any games, perhaps one. That tournament took place in the summer so when I returned to school that year I played a lot more at school and I would usually win.
The next year I went to high school and joined the Chess club there and I was fairly successful in the weekly games. I also participated in the High School Chess Championship for a couple of rounds, but dropped out because I was having headaches. After that I lost interest in Chess for a few years, playing only sporadically and not very well.
I got the bug again in my third year of University, and I don't remember how it happened. I probably saw some people playing in a cafeteria and it got me interested again and I played fairly intensely for another couple of years. During this time I would play at the University and also went in a couple of open tournaments, both of which I won prizes for in my rating group...which wasn't very high. I often would even play at parties, winning almost all the games, until I got too relaxed from sipping wine. Sometimes I would go down to the Winnipeg Public Library and play some games there as well. The hi-light at this point was winning a game against an International Master, Fletcher Barager, in a simultaneous exhibition at the University of Winnipeg. There were only about six people participating so it was actually a pretty good win.
After that I drifted away again and didn't return to chess until the late 1980s, when I, once again, got the bug and started playing. This lasted for about another two years and I don't recall playing in any tournaments in this time, but I did go down and play at the Winnipeg Chess Club once in a while. I participated in another simultaneous exhibition with GM Abe Yanofsky and lost yet again. It resulted from a simple blunder when I had a fairly good position, something that happens all too often.
Then there was another hiatus that ended around 2002 when I started playing with some people at work. I brought a chess set and clock and enjoyed many games of blitz chess at work during coffee breaks. More significantly at this time I picked up a Chess Program - Fritz and joined an on-line Chess Club - Chessbase which has enabled me to play many thousands of blitz games over the last 8 or 9 years. I realize that what has caused my lost of interest over the years was simply a lack of people to play in a convenient setting. The Internet has truly revolutionized Chess from that standpoint. I don't think that I am a better player because of it, all I do is play Blitz most of the time and that isn't the best way to improve. However the Internet has also made a vast quantity of games available for review and also allows you to watch major tournament games in real time. It is really quite remarkable.
I have always enjoyed reading about Chess and its history, so I have a fair number of Chess Books. I did go into another tournament about a year ago, it was a rapid Chess Tournament (each player has a 15 minute time limit). I did ok, I won a small prize, but I certainly could have done better. Although I have been playing for some time, I am not particularly good, but I am better than average. Many Chess players continue to play at a strong level late in age, so perhaps I can look forward to improving some more. I see myself continuing to play for the foreseeable future.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
The Karate-do years
Recently I was browsing Youtube and I encountered a video filmed in a Karate dojo. It engendered a peculiar response from me, an unusual response similar to what I was experiencing years ago when I stopped practicing Karate-do. At that time I had been practicing for twelve years and it had got to the point where every time I went to the dojo, or even contemplated going to the dojo, I would get this feeling of heaviness and unease. I ascribed this feeling to chronic fatigue syndrome - due to the fact that I had practiced very hard for many years. It is interesting to me that this feeling actually hasn't diminished in the 17 years since I stopped practicing because viewing that video brought back the same feeling.
I began following Karate-do in 1980, at the age of 20. I was at the University of Winnipeg and looking for an activity that would challenge me physically. I had always had very poor flexibility and I thought that pursuing an activity like Karate-do would improve that problem. Of course, I had seen the Bruce Lee movies as a kid, so there was always that mystique about the martial arts in general. I had also taken a course at the U of W on Sports Injuries and a girl in that course had mentioned the Karate Club at the University of Winnipeg. From the age of 16 to 20 I had primarily relied on Curling as my activity, sometimes Curling 200 games a year. However, that game was beginning to frustrate me because it simply wasn't enough exercise. Then I hurt my back one day warming up for a Curling game and I decided that I had to do something much more physical while I was still young. So, in the fall of 1980, I signed up at the Karate Club at the University of Winnipeg.
This program was taught by a U of W alumnus named Harold Abosh. Harold was a student of Tug Wilson, who was, in turn, a student of Mas Tsuruoka. Mr. Tsuruoka was a native born Canadian who had returned to Japan to live after the second world war. He had learned Judo in Canada but began training in Karate-do with an Okinowan master named Dr. Chitose. Later Mr. Tsuruoka returned to Canada and started teaching Chito-ryu in Canada.
The classes were conducted in a small Judo room in Riddell Hall at the Univeristy of Winnipeg. The floor had tatami and there were mirrors along one wall. The only ventilation for the room was to the indoor parking garage! I practiced for one year and found the training very intense and demanding. We would train two days a week to begin with and then added a Saturday morning class as well. Sometimes the Saturday morning classes would have only two or three students. I persevered, however, and soon there was a nucleus of several dedicated practitioners. Foremost were Bill Young and myself. In the next year we were joined by Terry Hendricks and my friend Ivan du Plessis and Anne Gaultier After the second year we had a very dedicated bunch and were practicing three times a week all year round.
Having a good dojo is like having any good sports team, you need a good coach and dedicated players and that certain chemistry. I think we had that for a few years at the U of W club. The number of students increased, as did the intensity level. Mr. Abosh also put on some Karate camps in the fall as well as special winter training. We participated in the Manitoba Karate Association Tournaments and were very successful at our levels and we also hosted clinics where Mr. Tsuruoka would come from Toronto to do seminars.
I found Karate-do to be difficult because of my large frame and terrible hips. I worked hard in the dojo but also practiced outside a great deal and did a lot of additional conditioning in the gym and running, but my progress was slow. After 5 years of hard work I was a brown belt, close to obtaining a black belt but not there yet. Then there were pressures from the University of Winnipeg because they were uncomfortable with Mr. Abosh's direction of turning the Club into his own business. He certainly deserved to have that type of success but the University was not comfortable with it and the pressures began to affect everyone, soon there was an incident or two where I was put in a position with Mr. Abosh that made it impossible for me to continue on training at that club. These kinds of breaks are always difficult but Anne and I left and started training at a new club.
The new club was the Japan Karate Association of Manitoba. The instructor was Phil Dingman and it was located on the third floor of an old warehouse building in Winnipeg's exchange district. The Japan Karate Association or JKA follows a lineage established by Gichin Funikoshi, an Okinowan master that brought Karate-do to Japan in the early part of the twentieth century. His students eventually fanned out across the globe teaching Mr. Funikoshi's style, which came to be known as Shoto-kan. At the time I began training Mr. Dingman was affiliated with a Japanese master named Mr. Yutaka Yaguchi.
Of course these types of dojos have to pay the bills and the dues are high, and there are many gradings. What I really liked about this dojo was that Mr. Dingman was able to bring in many well known Japanese Masters for clinics. I saw Mr. Osaka, Mr. Tanaka and Mr. Yaguchi. After two more years of very hard work I was awarded the Shodan, it was 1987 and I had been training for 7 years.
That same year I had begun teaching Karate-do at the Kirkfield-Westwood Community Centre. I would teach three classes a week for ten months of the year. I quite enjoyed the teaching and I ran this program for 5 years until 1992 when my oldest son was born. At that time I had been having some trouble with the hall at the Community Centre being left very dirty for Saturday classes and Anne said she wanted me at home more with Adam, so I retired from Karate-do. The truth is that I had been experiencing the physical tiredness and malaise that I mentioned earlier. I had slowly been getting back into playing recreational hockey, so it was time to leave.
In total I spent 12 years involved in Karate-do and I do not regret it. Although I was not naturally gifted for the activity I learned a great deal and I think that it developed my character. In the end it is all about working as hard as you can and the people that you meet. It really doesn't matter which path you choose, as long as you enter deeply along the way.
I began following Karate-do in 1980, at the age of 20. I was at the University of Winnipeg and looking for an activity that would challenge me physically. I had always had very poor flexibility and I thought that pursuing an activity like Karate-do would improve that problem. Of course, I had seen the Bruce Lee movies as a kid, so there was always that mystique about the martial arts in general. I had also taken a course at the U of W on Sports Injuries and a girl in that course had mentioned the Karate Club at the University of Winnipeg. From the age of 16 to 20 I had primarily relied on Curling as my activity, sometimes Curling 200 games a year. However, that game was beginning to frustrate me because it simply wasn't enough exercise. Then I hurt my back one day warming up for a Curling game and I decided that I had to do something much more physical while I was still young. So, in the fall of 1980, I signed up at the Karate Club at the University of Winnipeg.
This program was taught by a U of W alumnus named Harold Abosh. Harold was a student of Tug Wilson, who was, in turn, a student of Mas Tsuruoka. Mr. Tsuruoka was a native born Canadian who had returned to Japan to live after the second world war. He had learned Judo in Canada but began training in Karate-do with an Okinowan master named Dr. Chitose. Later Mr. Tsuruoka returned to Canada and started teaching Chito-ryu in Canada.
The classes were conducted in a small Judo room in Riddell Hall at the Univeristy of Winnipeg. The floor had tatami and there were mirrors along one wall. The only ventilation for the room was to the indoor parking garage! I practiced for one year and found the training very intense and demanding. We would train two days a week to begin with and then added a Saturday morning class as well. Sometimes the Saturday morning classes would have only two or three students. I persevered, however, and soon there was a nucleus of several dedicated practitioners. Foremost were Bill Young and myself. In the next year we were joined by Terry Hendricks and my friend Ivan du Plessis and Anne Gaultier After the second year we had a very dedicated bunch and were practicing three times a week all year round.
Having a good dojo is like having any good sports team, you need a good coach and dedicated players and that certain chemistry. I think we had that for a few years at the U of W club. The number of students increased, as did the intensity level. Mr. Abosh also put on some Karate camps in the fall as well as special winter training. We participated in the Manitoba Karate Association Tournaments and were very successful at our levels and we also hosted clinics where Mr. Tsuruoka would come from Toronto to do seminars.
I found Karate-do to be difficult because of my large frame and terrible hips. I worked hard in the dojo but also practiced outside a great deal and did a lot of additional conditioning in the gym and running, but my progress was slow. After 5 years of hard work I was a brown belt, close to obtaining a black belt but not there yet. Then there were pressures from the University of Winnipeg because they were uncomfortable with Mr. Abosh's direction of turning the Club into his own business. He certainly deserved to have that type of success but the University was not comfortable with it and the pressures began to affect everyone, soon there was an incident or two where I was put in a position with Mr. Abosh that made it impossible for me to continue on training at that club. These kinds of breaks are always difficult but Anne and I left and started training at a new club.
The new club was the Japan Karate Association of Manitoba. The instructor was Phil Dingman and it was located on the third floor of an old warehouse building in Winnipeg's exchange district. The Japan Karate Association or JKA follows a lineage established by Gichin Funikoshi, an Okinowan master that brought Karate-do to Japan in the early part of the twentieth century. His students eventually fanned out across the globe teaching Mr. Funikoshi's style, which came to be known as Shoto-kan. At the time I began training Mr. Dingman was affiliated with a Japanese master named Mr. Yutaka Yaguchi.
Of course these types of dojos have to pay the bills and the dues are high, and there are many gradings. What I really liked about this dojo was that Mr. Dingman was able to bring in many well known Japanese Masters for clinics. I saw Mr. Osaka, Mr. Tanaka and Mr. Yaguchi. After two more years of very hard work I was awarded the Shodan, it was 1987 and I had been training for 7 years.
That same year I had begun teaching Karate-do at the Kirkfield-Westwood Community Centre. I would teach three classes a week for ten months of the year. I quite enjoyed the teaching and I ran this program for 5 years until 1992 when my oldest son was born. At that time I had been having some trouble with the hall at the Community Centre being left very dirty for Saturday classes and Anne said she wanted me at home more with Adam, so I retired from Karate-do. The truth is that I had been experiencing the physical tiredness and malaise that I mentioned earlier. I had slowly been getting back into playing recreational hockey, so it was time to leave.
In total I spent 12 years involved in Karate-do and I do not regret it. Although I was not naturally gifted for the activity I learned a great deal and I think that it developed my character. In the end it is all about working as hard as you can and the people that you meet. It really doesn't matter which path you choose, as long as you enter deeply along the way.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
My First Experience Coaching Hockey
This year I coached my son's Midget A2 hockey team and it was my first experience as a hockey coach. I played a lot of hockey over the years, but most of it was unorganized. Most of my experience with organized hockey came as a referee. I refereed minor hockey for about 8 years up until 2006 when my hips became so bad that I was beginning to have difficulty skating. When I gave up skating it meant giving up the recreational hockey that I played and also refereeing. Between these two activities I was probably on the ice about 10 hours a week, so it was a big part of my life.
At the time that I retired from hockey neither of my two sons played at all. I had taken them to the rink and to skating lessons when they were younger but they just weren't interested in playing. Then, suddenly, about three years ago, Steven, who is my younger son, became interested in playing at the age of 14 and then one year later, at 15, he was playing midget hockey. Not playing all that well, but playing. So I became a hockey Dad during the period when I was hobbled by my hips and during the time I was having the surgery to replace them. Needless to say I did not see myself getting involved too much with the teams, although I did help out a bit now and then by time keeping.
Last fall Steven transferred to a new team and I volunteered to help out as a Manager or whatever, but it turned out that the team needed a Coach. Although I hadn't coached hockey, what I had done was taken some hockey coaching courses way back in the early nineties. I took them because I had thought that I would be able to coach my kids when they were older, but, of course, they never played. So I thought that I would be able to do the basics. I had coached soccer for one year and also instructed Karate-do at my own club for 5 years, so I wasn't exactly new to coaching in general. It turned out that the courses that I had taken were no longer valid so I had to spend a weekend taking a new program that forms the basic requirements for coaching hockey in Canada. Of course, I had a lot of background in minor hockey from refereeing as well. Still it was a challenge because I could not get on the ice with the players during practice because I was still recovering from my surgeries. I didn't know, and still don't know, whether I can skate. I'm planning on trying again this fall.
Anyhow, I felt that this limitation would be mitigated by the fact that the players were older and did not need that type of one-to-one instruction so much. Also there were two other Dads who could help with practices but could not commit to full-time coaching. Essentially I would plan out the practices and then go over it with the other Coaches and then let them run the practice on-ice while I would supply the outlines of the drills with "chalk-talks" from the bench. It wasn't the best arrangement, but it worked. One or both of them also helped on the bench during the games.
One of the problems that we had was that we got off to a slow start with only one practice before the season started. This was due to the fact that I didn't find out that the team needed a coach until about a week and a half prior to the season starting. During that time I had to go to a coaches meeting, go to an ice draft for practice times and attend the weekend coaching clinic. We lost our first game, although it was close, but that set us up for a poor start and we had a loosing record for most of the season. In the meantime I had also arranged to have name tags for the sweaters, which was an additional few hours of running around.
Once the season started we fell into a routine of about 1.5 games to each practice. Attendance is difficult for the players at this age because they have jobs and girlfriends and hockey is simply not as high a priority for them. None of the players at this level would be moving on to any elite level of hockey, so they were basically in it for fun. Given that, I thought that overall our players did attend fairly well but it was erratic enough that we couldn't build much momentum. After each game I would try and analyze an area for us to work on and then research some coaching manuals and the internet for drills that I thought would be interesting and help the players develop individually and as a team. This is where I felt that not being on the ice was a limitation for me. I also didn't feel as though I could generate the enthusiasm which I could have if I was going out to practice with them. For some poorly attended practices the players decided on their own to simply scrimmage for fun.
The games were generally pretty good, we would usually have about 11 or 12 players out. Our goalies attended well and played quite well. Overall I would say that conditioning was a problem for these guys, they could have been in better shape and I think we lost a few games because they ran out of gas. We didn't really have practices to do extra conditioning and I don't think they would have tolerated it that well anyway. I tried to adopt the philosophy of keeping players together as much as possible and we used a rotational basis for the lines, which is fair for all. We did have a couple of players who took a lot of penalties and that cost us, but that is hockey I suppose.
By the end of the season we were playing better and , although we finished in last place, we had won a few games and were improving. We lost one game by default because I allowed one of the goalies to play out because he wanted to try it. I didn't see any problem with it, but apparently that is against the rules so we had to forfeit a game that we won on the ice. The players also forfeited a game after that because not enough of them showed up. That was a low point, but the team rallied into the play-offs by playing their best hockey of the season. We won a couple of games and could have done better except for a few bad bounces.
I kept statistics and summarized the games for the players on Facebook, the page is "Tuxedo Lightning Midget A2". Overall, I think it was successful, there are things I would do differently of course. I think that the kids were great, they were a lot of fun. Most of all I suppose that I am grateful that I had the opportunity to participate in the game this way. I would do it again, but there certainly would be changes.
At the time that I retired from hockey neither of my two sons played at all. I had taken them to the rink and to skating lessons when they were younger but they just weren't interested in playing. Then, suddenly, about three years ago, Steven, who is my younger son, became interested in playing at the age of 14 and then one year later, at 15, he was playing midget hockey. Not playing all that well, but playing. So I became a hockey Dad during the period when I was hobbled by my hips and during the time I was having the surgery to replace them. Needless to say I did not see myself getting involved too much with the teams, although I did help out a bit now and then by time keeping.
Last fall Steven transferred to a new team and I volunteered to help out as a Manager or whatever, but it turned out that the team needed a Coach. Although I hadn't coached hockey, what I had done was taken some hockey coaching courses way back in the early nineties. I took them because I had thought that I would be able to coach my kids when they were older, but, of course, they never played. So I thought that I would be able to do the basics. I had coached soccer for one year and also instructed Karate-do at my own club for 5 years, so I wasn't exactly new to coaching in general. It turned out that the courses that I had taken were no longer valid so I had to spend a weekend taking a new program that forms the basic requirements for coaching hockey in Canada. Of course, I had a lot of background in minor hockey from refereeing as well. Still it was a challenge because I could not get on the ice with the players during practice because I was still recovering from my surgeries. I didn't know, and still don't know, whether I can skate. I'm planning on trying again this fall.
Anyhow, I felt that this limitation would be mitigated by the fact that the players were older and did not need that type of one-to-one instruction so much. Also there were two other Dads who could help with practices but could not commit to full-time coaching. Essentially I would plan out the practices and then go over it with the other Coaches and then let them run the practice on-ice while I would supply the outlines of the drills with "chalk-talks" from the bench. It wasn't the best arrangement, but it worked. One or both of them also helped on the bench during the games.
One of the problems that we had was that we got off to a slow start with only one practice before the season started. This was due to the fact that I didn't find out that the team needed a coach until about a week and a half prior to the season starting. During that time I had to go to a coaches meeting, go to an ice draft for practice times and attend the weekend coaching clinic. We lost our first game, although it was close, but that set us up for a poor start and we had a loosing record for most of the season. In the meantime I had also arranged to have name tags for the sweaters, which was an additional few hours of running around.
Once the season started we fell into a routine of about 1.5 games to each practice. Attendance is difficult for the players at this age because they have jobs and girlfriends and hockey is simply not as high a priority for them. None of the players at this level would be moving on to any elite level of hockey, so they were basically in it for fun. Given that, I thought that overall our players did attend fairly well but it was erratic enough that we couldn't build much momentum. After each game I would try and analyze an area for us to work on and then research some coaching manuals and the internet for drills that I thought would be interesting and help the players develop individually and as a team. This is where I felt that not being on the ice was a limitation for me. I also didn't feel as though I could generate the enthusiasm which I could have if I was going out to practice with them. For some poorly attended practices the players decided on their own to simply scrimmage for fun.
The games were generally pretty good, we would usually have about 11 or 12 players out. Our goalies attended well and played quite well. Overall I would say that conditioning was a problem for these guys, they could have been in better shape and I think we lost a few games because they ran out of gas. We didn't really have practices to do extra conditioning and I don't think they would have tolerated it that well anyway. I tried to adopt the philosophy of keeping players together as much as possible and we used a rotational basis for the lines, which is fair for all. We did have a couple of players who took a lot of penalties and that cost us, but that is hockey I suppose.
By the end of the season we were playing better and , although we finished in last place, we had won a few games and were improving. We lost one game by default because I allowed one of the goalies to play out because he wanted to try it. I didn't see any problem with it, but apparently that is against the rules so we had to forfeit a game that we won on the ice. The players also forfeited a game after that because not enough of them showed up. That was a low point, but the team rallied into the play-offs by playing their best hockey of the season. We won a couple of games and could have done better except for a few bad bounces.
I kept statistics and summarized the games for the players on Facebook, the page is "Tuxedo Lightning Midget A2". Overall, I think it was successful, there are things I would do differently of course. I think that the kids were great, they were a lot of fun. Most of all I suppose that I am grateful that I had the opportunity to participate in the game this way. I would do it again, but there certainly would be changes.
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