Hatsuo Royama's Time with Nakamura Sensei

This is a translation from an interview with Hatsuo Royama sensei (in Japanese with Korean subtitle). The interview itself was in three parts and I'll be posting more excerpts from the interview later on.


"One of the training I received under Nakamura sensei was hitting the "suna bukuro" or sandbag. I was told to hit the sandbag 1000 times with each hand and foot, for the total of 4000 strikes. The next morning, I urinated blood. I was a little unnerved so I went to a urologist but there was nothing wrong with me. When I told this to sensei, he replied, "such things are quite normal. One must not be dismayed nor discouraged. It was simply weakness leaving the body through tanren (conditioning, or hardening) so one must overcome such difficulty with a strong mind."