Ignorance and morons in the noble arts!

Over the years I have come to accept the fact and respect the fact that the art I love has some great practitioners in it and some not so great practitioners in it. By this I mean people who are open minded, loving and want to grow in Karate and help others…and then the others who have entitlement issues, or are very close minded about things or simply out for themselves.

The Good

Most of the people I have been lucky enough to be personally associated with fall under the first category! I have even had one instructor, Saeki Sensei, actually give me the shirt off his back when I commented on how nice it was. I still have that golf shirt and hold it as a prized position! I have also met instructors like Del Philips who would chat for hours about Karate and training, and even personal things as if you were his best friend! He would share things and never once did he hold back as if his knowledge was a secret! In fact he would go out of his way to open up to you and get you thinking!

I have also had the pleasure and honour of being Dingman Senseis oldest student and a close student whom he opened his home up to on more than one occasion and allowed me to be a travel companion on our way to different camps. His experience and knowledge was always on display as we travelled the long roads to camps and tournaments and he always listened and shared with me, and encouraged me to train with anyone that had something of value to teach!

I also Trained with Terry Proctor Sensei in East St. Paul who was a major influence on my early training and taught me a lot about Kumite and being a good person. Along with Terry were a multitude of instructors, seniors and fellow students who would openly share with me as well as train alongside me in the dojo and would help push me to learn and become the instructor I am today.

All of the instructors I trained with for any amount of time I can say the same things about their character over all. They cared about their students, they wanted to share their experiences and they wanted to see us grow as people as well as Karate practitioners. They did not hold back, in most cases and they did not mind answering questions, even from a 10 year old kid that would not shut up in the car on the way to a tournament in a near by city!

The Bad

However, I also ran into a fair number of the other kind of students and instructors. Those that showed Ego and insecurities that also flourishes in the arts. I had my run in with instructors who wanted to put you down and make you feel like you were worthlessly lost and with out a clue. All this to try and feel superior to you! The ironic part is that most of us saw right through those instructors and kind of laughed at them! Then you had the Marching Maniacs that choose to teach by blurting out broken English phrases and marching up and down the sides of a class yelling at students and never once doing a demonstration, but DEMANDING that you pay them respect as they had been in tournaments and taught for years…..big deal, when are you going to start teaching us!

The biggest issue in Karate for the “Second” kind of instructors/practitioners was POWER! The all mighty political influence and power over your Karate life that meant that you were under their thumb or heaven forbid they would strip you of rank or make your life training life hell. I have to laugh, what is rank in the first place? One persons evaluation of your skill at that time…..so, what….are they now saying that they were wrong about you and your skill level? So, not obeying their rules or bowing and scraping has now made them decide that their original opinion of you was not correct?? This would be why I stopped grading like a mad man in the first place! I will only accept rank from those I respect enough to take a ranking from! I respect the instructors of the JKA’s opinion and I truly respect Saeki Sensei and his thoughts, but to be frank some of the other instructors whom have offered to rank me if I were only to travel to their club and pay a fee….they can keep their ranks! Not worth the paper its written on!

The UGLY

The other “game” I see a lot of is the “Org Game” or the “King of the hill” game as I call it. Again, it goes back to politics and power, but its kind of like “he who has the most students loyal ONLY to them wins”….Crapola! The trueth is that the ones that get remembered are those that show something special about themselves! Besides who cares if you have 200-500 students in your club, if they all look and act like zombies and are not allowed to think for themselves! The whole game of “ you can not train at others clubs/ events” is old and out of date. Sometime after Nakayama Sensei passed away this idea came about that if your students went to another club and trained then they would leave you and your chances at “winning King of the hill” were over. CRAPOLA! If your students go out and travel to other clubs….and you are a halfway decent instructor who treats them right…they will come back….with more info to share and help your other students grow…and after a while…your club will be really strong!

Often, through no fault of their own, students are offered the generic drivel that their instructors offer up to those that they don’t want to give more than a good work out to. The class is 100,000 kicks with the equal number of punching up and down a floor and that is about all…other than 40 Katas at their testing level and perhaps some kumite…three step or generic one step with little more than an instructor barking orders at the students to go faster and harder…but NOTHING in the way of a good instructional class. After this the students get up to black belt and end up leaving or worse yet…thinking that this is Karate and teaching the same Drill instructor type classes designed to only work out. Now, nothing wrong with this kind of work out, I personally love getting the “spirit training” classes…but its only a fraction of what a class should be!

Lets get physical…and that’s all!

The instructor of the “Work out” classes think they are delivering a great product because the students are exhausted and sore after class, and “feel it” the next few days. Again, not a bad work out…but what did they learn? How did they grow? The instructors, often through no fault of their own…as a learned teaching strategy….end up keeping the students ignorant and “Stupid and drooling”. The don’t ask me any questions, or even better the instructor asking questions then barking at students when they don’t regurgitate the drivel that the instructor has been force feeding them word for word…it shows a great lack of genuine love of teaching and growth.

I once had an instructor actually tell me NOT to ask questions as his teaching should cover all “Important” questions! Arrogance and ego ruin instructors as fast as want for political gain in an organization! The very best trained athletes who train under the best instructors will turn into horror shows in the Dojo as an instructor if they learn the faults of political gain from their instructors.

The issue of students traveling to other clubs or participating in other organizations tournaments or seminars is a common one. At the JKA/MB Dingman Sensei will give a fair evaluation of an instructor, if he knows them only, and will then let you go and make up your own mind...having been told his opinion, he wants you to tell him yours. He is not scared to lose you and will even find out about other instructors and have me go train with them if possible when traveling. No limits to trying to learn! However have found that this mentality seems to not be shared by other instructors. In fact I have seen instructors not only threaten to excommunicate others if they travel and go play in someone else’s sand box, but they also try to openly recruit students, including myself and say that if we move over we will have better training, higher ranks and a better organization…and more fun. But then we wont be able to train with our old group….no thanks.

The Style Game

Karate is not the only style that seems to house this level of stupidity! I have trained in Kickboxing gyms were instructors or coaches say that Karate and the other martial arts suck and that their style is better….I have to point out that there are NEVER any older kick boxers in gyms training and getting healthy and training into old age! I also was “taught” how to throw a Round kick by one of the owners/head coach…and even a slight knowledge of the body would tell you that repeated movements like this from the hip will lead to injury and a horrible limp! The fact is that I have trained in Judo, Aikido, Karate, Kick boxing and a plethora of different styles and the one thing I can say about pretty much all styles is that they play the “Style game”.

The Culture of western Martial arts, in north America is littered with this obsession with who is doing the best style, and as I have stated in the past it’s a misguided attempt to find the best of the best. What you need to look at is the athlete/fighter/practitioner that is training and what their goals are! We see movies like Blood sport, Kick boxer (1-99999), and the hordes of other movies that pit style vs style as if some kind of fight match will tell everyone what style they should be doing. The issues with this kind of thinking are MANY! First off you end up with a mismatch of goals. Someone trying to capture a full contact tournament title is obviously not going to take up Tai Chi and someone that is looking for a family way to stay in shape is going to avoid a very tournament-centric Tae Kwon do club! However, if you take the best of the best fighters in each club and throw them into a tournament…you will see what fighter is the best…not what style! The outcome may shock some!

My teaching style is traditional

The other load of Cow plop that I hear all the time from instructors that refuse to leave the “bark orders and pace” mentality and teach the same thing over and over again is that their style of teaching is traditional. Little do they know that this is so far from the truth. They may not realize that all they are doing is showing the style that was formed around the middle to end of World war two. Prior to Karate coming to Japan from Okinawa and even in the early days of training , most of the classes were small groups and the instructors spent a lot of time one on one, with no group training in lines. This was created to teach larger groups and mirrored the styles of military drilling.

Some styles of Karate, normally Okinawan styles, teach in clusters and have students training in different things through the Dojo. Its more traditional to do it this way than the way we do it today, which again was adopted around world war two to try and first get people ready for war and then after to try and give the American and occupying forces something to do that looked familure.

For an instructor to say that they are doing the “Right format” in training and others are not is ignorant, especially if they are doing the military marching. In our organization we have many different ways of teaching classes, from the Up and down the floors to individual drill practice and even special Clinics that are put on. Each is run a bit different and we never ever suggest one is better than then other, we simply try to push the students to learn more and be better.

However, I have seen instructors chastise and criticise others for breaking from the traditional pace up and down and yelp mentality of teaching, and every time I shake my head and walk away realizing how little they actually know of what Karate is.

Japan this and Japan that

The other one that I hate is instructors who insist on bringing up what the Japan is doing right now or what they used to do. Its probably as annoying as me saying “in the old days” and then telling war stories to new students. At first it may be interesting but if that is ALL you teach then you are missing the bigger part of WHY you are teaching.

I once took a class from a guest instructor who is fairly well known in Canada for his accomplishments and has a very dedicated bunch of students who follow him! But he is one of those, “in Japan they did this”, or “in Japan you would be scolded for that” and he never teaches anything but his view of history of his time in Japan…and that was the limit of what he taught us…how he felt we were pathetic because he remembered it was much better in Japan back in the day…???

The point being that he was a crap teacher, or at least he was that day, and he missed the point. We were their to learn from him and not listen to a hour long speech on why we were never going to be as good as they were in Japan back in the day. Secret is, my instructor went to Japan…Trained in Japan and watched tournaments…and had his students go to Japan and we were told by the same Japanese that this guy both bowed to and hated…that our techniques were some of the best they had seen and our instructor was great.

The reason that these instructors are so stuck on what Japan did and was like is that they are living in the past and not growing as instructors. While I am a stickler for tradition and correct form ext. I also try to research, do personal studies and learn the why of what we are doing…create new drills and try to get the best out of students NOW that I can. I don’t dwell on the fact that I had a personal student that was one of the best brown belt youth fighters in the history of the JKA. She was killer! But I know I can do that again with students and I train hard myself to be a good instructor…I don’t dwell on what used to be, I focus on what can be!

Those instructors that are so stuck in the past, well maybe they should stop teaching and write a book about history of Karate or some such thing, but if you don’t focus on today,……you will lose students eventually. Besides from what I can recall of the old days, they were FILLED with the good and the bad!

As with all things our great martial art is filled with the good, the bad and the ugly. As a instructor and student my job is to find those likeminded instructors and students and try to bridge a gap between them. Learn as much as I can and also pass on what I can. Its my job not to be so ego centric that I forget the real purpose of why I teach and more importantly to respect and love the reason I train!

Top ten misunderstood terms, Concepts and or theories of Karate

Over the years I have seen some interesting interpretations from instructors of both Japanese terms, Concepts and theories that are put into practice in the Dojo…in theory. Recently I had a conversation with a “high ranking” instructor who totally showed me in three paragraphs the issues that we are dealing with as instructors in Karate. The education outside of the physical is so lacking that we end up passing on tripe and drival to students when they deserve way more! Here is my top ten of misconceptions and misquoted Comcepts that often make it into modern Dojo Dogma!

1. the philosophy of the Dojo Kun:

Misunderstanding of Philosophy: Were to start? I have read that you can only read it in order, that it is a guide post only for Juniors and children and that it is just like the “boy scout Oath”.
Corrections: The Dojo Kun can be read in ANY order, the start of each line is “ONE” or “Hitotus” and the end of “KOTO” is like a punctuation mark of importance. This basically means that they all are equally important and this also allows us to put them in any order we want to. The importance of Dojo Kun is more important as we go up in rank and our physical skills are improved upon. It is also equally important for a Jukyu as it is for a Rokudan! While I don’t want to diminish the importance of the Boy Scout oath or pledge, I put far more importance on a oath to not harm anyone with a physical skill that is being trained into the person than it is to always be prepared to help a little old lady across the street!
Why it matters: The Dojo Kun is a set of rules that was established by the founders of Karate, all styles have one! The Kun is a way of training in Karate to use the skills properly and is a guide post for being a better person through the use of Karate! In Shotokan we have the older Dojo Kun which is more a set of tenents on how to present yourself in public life as well as a way of guiding you “spiritually”, and we have the Niju Kun, more a way of practicing Karate written by Funakoshi Sensei to his students. Both of these should be seen as equally important in your Karate training!

2. the Term Dojo:

Misunderstood Term: academy, school or studio
Actual meaning: “ Place of the way” more like a “church for Karate training”. It has a deeper spiritual meaning than school or Academy. It’s a place to forge your spirit!

Why it matters: To many people treat Karate clubs as “Clubs” or “Schools” and forget that the actual training they are engaging in should transcend just punching and kicking in white pajamas. We are losing far to much of the spiritual forging for the physical aspects of Karate. Instructors changed their focus from creating better people, both physically and character wise, to just getting a good work out or worse…getting medals and trophies. It’s a place where you learn a tradition and gain a new perspective when training. It’s a place you go to in order to forge a stronger spirit and personal perspective and a place that you go to push yourself and learn.

3. The concepts of Dojo Shogyu:

Misunderstood Concept: Two classes a week at the Dojo is more than enough to get good at Karate!
Actual Truth: The Dojo is not for “training” its for learning and getting corrected. Yes you should get a good work out but the truth is most of your training is done at home as homework and will really determine how good you get!
Why it matters: Once upon a time we had a club that was open Monday to Saturday and had multiple classes a day. Now we are down to two classes a week in most clubs and the level of technical skill and ability has fallen. We used to see people in the club using club time as their only training time, we now need to work at home a few times a week to push ourselves for conditioning and working on technical skill. Its important to remember that three work outs a week at home for a half hour will make a huge impact on your skills and ability, two classes at the club alone, and missing the odd one for other responsibilities will only help you maintain a lower level of skill and understanding.

4. the Title Sensei:

Misunderstood meaning:: teacher
Actual meaning: “one who came before” a type of guide in Karate
Why it matters: The term “Sensei” has a specific connotation to it that has been over played and venerated over the years. We bow deeper when we see a “Sensei” we are forced to feel like we need to use the term 24/7 and when we say it some say it like “YOUR HIGHNESS” and often we see some instructors who treat it as such and get a swollen Ego out of the deal!

The truth is that “Sensei” means “one who came before in life” and basically means that the understanding is that they were at one point in time exactly where you are now….and just stuck it out long enough to learn a bit more and get a bit better. The truth is that many instructors are called “Sensei” out of Habit. And we have a plethora of “Sensei and bow…..Sensei and bow” in a class. It’s a lot more complex than just calling a Black belt Sensei every time you see one or because someone is leading a class calling them that….and its also a lot more complex than not doing that as well….that is for a different article all together. Suffice it to say, the term Sensei…its not all its cracked up to be and its also more than its presented as!

5. the term Ous/Oos/ Osa:

Misunderstood meaning: Taken as “Yes “ or “I understand”
Actual meaning : the term comes from two Japanese words, “Oshi” and “Shinobu”. “Oshi” means pressure and “Shinobu” means to preserve or endure. Ergo the word actually means I will endure under pressure! It can also mean “I will be Patient” or “ I will be determined…I have appreciation or I will preserver”.
Why it matters: The term has come to mean, YES in a dojo and its not what it means. Many people use this word freely thinking they are using it correctly, it is much better to know what you are saying! Also the word has a far deeper meaning and is much better understood when the true meaning is conveyed to students.

6. The Concept and term Bunkai:

Misunderstood meaning: Application
Actual meaning : analysis or study
Why it matters: I see so many instructors shoveling out the horrible and generic applications for Kata and not realizing that they are supposed to break it down and analys it for themselves. They instead take it as a certainty that the application is what they were told and move on, giving little thought to what applications could exist in a Kata outside of what they were taught. It’s a situation I see in most clubs I have visited that the instructors and seniors simply “Dance” violently through a Kata and don’t think about what they are doing!

Bunkai also has a few different “kinds” of Bunkai…There is Kihon Bunkai (a direct analysis of the basic movements and basic meanings behind moves), this is the first phase of Bunkai and one that 99.9% of instructors and students don’t make it past this level. The second level is Oyo Bunkai and refers to using different movements to suit your own ability, size, skills, personality. Far to often we see instructors try and build a cookie cutter student with the same skills and inclinations as they do with Karate. This discourages true growth and experimentation in training, and they will never develop their own style! I was very lucky in that my instructor taught us to think for ourselves and asked questions about how or what I would do with a move, that and I have trained in Judo and several other arts to help flavor my Karate!

The Third level is one even I have a hard time with. Renzoku Bunkai is the free and continuous application of movements based on Kata. Renzoku Bunkai has almost a Kumite feeling to the movements, and the student has freedom to use the applications according to his interpretations of the Kata movements but the movements must match the Kata!

One good reason that Bunaki, true Bunkai is important is it shows understanding and breeds knowledge. This is very important in Karate to show that training in Kata has value to a person, without understanding and increased knowledge….its just violent dancing!

7. the titles and concepts Sempai / Kohai:

Misunderstood meaning: All seniors are Sempai and all juniors are Kohai
Actual meaning : this is the “descriptive” of a relationship that two people have in a martial art, business or school. It is not a causal relationship but a special one on one relationship that two people share. One’s Senior is not just in rank but has a responsibility to teach the Kohai and help them while the Kohais only responsibility is to work hard and learn!
Why it matters: It has become more and more prevalent for All brown and black belts to be called “Sempai” in clubs, and that is fine as long as people know its not the true and proper use of the term. A “Sempai” is someone who may be senior to you in rank, but more than likely has just been around longer than you have and has the responsibility to teach you things like Etiquette, behavior, and help you adapt to the Dojo Culture. They also will try and assist you around testing times to get ready for ranking and in Japan…that may even be a person who is junior to you in rank. I recall being told a story from a Japanese instructor of how his Sempai stopped testing at Sandan, and he kept training. The Instructor continued to test and for his Rokudan (6^th Dan) his Sempai….a 3^rd dan helped fix his form in Kata and help assist him in training! This seems very strange to us in the west where we assume that because of a higher rank the person must know more and be better!

The other issue we have in the west is a role reversal. The Sempai always feels that the Kohai must serve them and that because they have been around longer the junior must have more responsibility serving them than the other way around. This is the opposite of the traditional use of the relationship. While a Junior must show respect, their ONLY responsibility is to show respect to the senior by training hard, behaving properly and excelling with the help of the senior. The Senior also can play a role in the outside life of the junior, assisting in Job hunts, Helping them in relationships and I have even been told that a few Sempai have found their Kohoi their wives!

8.The Concept one martial arts style will make you better than another:

Misunderstood idea: My Martial arts style is the best and it can beat your style!
Actual Truth: Martial arts styles do not make you great at fighting, Nor should that be the focus of the style. As Dingman Sensei has said “its not the Dog in the fight, it’s the fight in the dog”! It does not matter if you train in Judo, Karate, Aikido or Kung Fu…if you are a good fighter you will win fights over people in other styles.
Why it matters: Because it’s the most misleading marketing ploy out their! I can not count how often you see or read that an instructor insists that training in their martial art will make you a killer and unbeatable in a street fight, sports event or you will be a master of martial arts under them….key being under them…IE you will never beat them! Its silly and ridiculous. One of the more modern example of this was the early days of the UFC and how they said that Jiu Jitsu would revolutionize fighting as we know it and it is the best style ever! Prior to that Boxing and striking arts were seen as the best. Royce Gracie, the smallest of the Gracie Clan got into a ring…so no one could run away…and fought against guys that were twice as big as him and beat them. They told the world that most of them were “world champions” in one style or another…but if you really look close…none of them were well trained at all…..it was a scam! Next we saw that wrestlers were shutting down Jiu Jitsu fighters and taking wins in the world of MMA. They would rip strikers to the ground and pound on them or take down a Jitsu guy and tire them out by holding them down and stopping a lot of their attacks. They were the new GODS of MMA or as they said…REAL MARTIAL ARTS! Then the strikers figured out how to avoid being taken down and guys like Mark Coleman, once seen as WRESTLING GODS and MMA SUPER STARS were KO’d by strikers again….the circle seemed complete!

The truth however is much more simple than this “evolution” of MMA and thus martial arts theory. The fact is that you can take ten people and put them in ten different martial arts…then have them all demonstrate the physical ability in a tournament….the end result is that the most physically gifted and natural fighters will win in Kumite and the most graceful and skilled at form will win in Kata…regardless of the style they train in….its not the style, it’s the person!

I also recall seeing a Tai Chi instructor who was VERY good take out a Tae Kwon Do fighter in an open tournament, Tai Chi not being known as an overly aggressive style it was interesting to see the man fighting take out a man half his age!

9. the idea that Chinte is a girls Kata:

Misunderstood idea: I can not count the number of times some instructor has said “oh, Chinte…the girls Kata”. And they are serious.
Actual use of Kata : Chinte is not a ladies Kata, it means unusual hands and is a Kata that teaches close quarters combat, and in a particularly Evil way. The Kata was created to teach brutal self defense and is the only Kata with the plethora of unique and painful hand techniques. No other Kata has naka-daka-ken and nihon-nukite. While it would be a great Kata for ladies to learn…its not reserved to that gende!
Why it matters: Because limiting your knowledge becaue of a misplaced ideal is sad. The strange thing is that this Kata and Hangetsu are both viewed with equal contempt by young students that love exciting Kata. However, most of them turning to Sochin for that power and excitement would be mortified to see that Chinte has more in common with Sochin…than with Hangetsu. Not only does it have a lot of Fudo-Dachi…some say that some of sochin’s stance ideology comes from the same source as chinte!

10. the idea that only Karate has Kata in it:

Misunderstood idea: A lot of students and instructors think that only Karate has Kata!
Actual reality: I have news for you, everything in Japanese culture tends to have a pattern or Kata that they follow. Flower arraigning, sword making, Tea making, even gardening has a specific traditional flow to the techniques that are Kata. If you sit and watch a tea maker making Japanese tea, the whole process has a precise Kata to it! I have been told that the mixing of cement in Japanese culture even has its own form that the Japanese people have created. Also, Kendo and Judo have Kata that they learn, a bit different than our individual movement Katas but for the same reasons.
Why it matters: The reason I bring this up is to understand that Karate is not SO different in Japanese culture and also to realize that it is different at the same time from ours. We are studying a very different culture and we need to respect that. We may bring it into our lives, we may even adapt it to our own skills and personality, but it is a borrowed activity and we need to respect it.

Shiai Karate vs Budo Karate

Shiai Karate vs Budo Karate

I am often finding myself both criticizing Shiai Karate and promoting it at the same time, and confusing my students and fellow Karate-ka at the same time. See I don’t like to teaching tournament or Shiai Karate exclusively to people and I also let my students know that Shiai’s are a good tool to work towards better Karate, but they are not the end all of training. No one should focus so much on Karate tournaments that they miss the other benefits of Karate. In fact tournaments are a fun distraction, but represent a small portion of ones training in Karate.

Shiai Karate focuses on speed, form, and one dimensional sparring and Kata that is a performance. This is fantastic for lower level training and for people that are looking to have some fun, but this is a very shallow well to draw from if you are looking to understand Karate. Only athletes get to the highest level of Shiai Karate and it does not take understanding or character development to get to this place. It takes a young body that is able to perform at a high level, and that fades quickly with age…and leaves us with a work out body that belongs to an athlete that probably does not truly understand Karate to begin with.

Budo Karate on the other hand can be taken up by anyone, of any age or gender! It is a study of Karate on many different levels and more so, it is the application of Karate as a way of getting know know yourself. The other major difference is that in Shiai Karate when a point is earned/scored the fight is called, in Budo Karate it is more like a real fight in that it continues till the instructor lets the communication in the form of Kumite end! And the Kata for a Shiai exchange is polished, worked and hardly understood as anything other than dance. The Budo Kata may not be pretty at all, but you can actually see the practitioner destroying joints, taking out opponents and destroying those in his way.

I don’t want to take away from the value of Shiai Karate at all, and I have to say I enjoyed my share of competitions in the past, but I also don’t want any students I train with to think that this is the goal of Karate. If you turn down that road then you end up with a Karate that is based on Ego and Dojos that focus on past accomplishments that are fleeting instead of the good that they do for the individual, like my instructor focused on.

I know of a few old time Karate instructors who focused so much on what their students and they did in Karate to garner trophies and medals and they are all but dried up people now. Their dojos suffer from trying to repeat the past at every turn and they stop growing when they realize that the final whistle has been blown on their Shiai Career.

Budo Karat has so much more to offer a student! The pursuit of the self for one, the ability to train and find out not only what you are capable of physically but for the pure reason of doing it. The goal is not a shiny medal but a better understanding of who you are. It also provides a more real experience in Karate and self-defense than the techniques used for Shiai Karate.

In Shiai Karate the most used techniques are the front, round kicks and the lunge punch and reverse punch. It disallows many of the more in close techniques and also unique or dangerous techniques. However Budo Karate encourages variety in your techniques and application of them. I have also noted that when some ones goal is a belt rank or a medal they become very myopic in their view. They train for specific situations and use specific techniques over and over again and their Karate becomes a bit of a game of tag! Budo Karate encourages variety, fluidity in techniques and does not focus on the goal of “Scoring a point” but rather putting together a movement pattern that leads to better health, better self-defense and a challenge that is deeper than shiny medals and ribbons….self-improvement.

For those that participate in Karate only to gain medals I fear their existence in Karate after that endeavor has ended will be rather shallow and meaningless. They will lose the passion for training and if they dare become instructors their students will sense the lack of passion and the inability to let go of the past and live and train in the now! It is sad when an instructor is so stuck in the past that they don’t seem to help their current students develop. How often have I seen instructors say….”IN Japan they do (add grandiose statement about training)….while what I am seeing here is (add put down to current students). Its sad that instructors tend to see this as some kind of positive feed back when in truth it’s a statement about past Shiai Karate experiences that are fading distant memories.

For me the pursuit of Budo Karate or Martial training is much more important and will take me to the last breath I take, much after the other instructors have given up trying to develop themselves, I will still be striving ahead to understand the true meaning of Karate…and hoping that like Funakoshi…in my last days…I finally figure out the basis of true Karate!

Drinking the cool-aide: Martial arts Groupies!

A while back I blogged about the instructors that I liked and some that I did not like. The facts are that this blog is all about the way that I see things, its my thoughts and my opinions, some of which will not jive with others. But then there are the facts. I don’t mind if you want to Drink the cool-aide and believe what an instructor is telling people, but for God’s sake don’t post your silly thoughts on the internet and have someone who knows about the situations be able to read them and laugh at them. An old Chinese proverb states “better to keep your mouth shut and have people think you a fool, than open it and prove them right”……a proverb that sometimes even I should keep in mind.

I posted about an instructor, whom out of respect I did not name. He was a gent that had tried the JKA instructor program and did NOT graduate.

Now, my comments in the first blog were to bring to light the attitude this gent had when he made his way back to the JKA of MB and taught a class. I thought nothing of the blog after I posted it, because to be frank I don’t often think of this guy and have had several other mediocre instructors that were better than he was and a fair amount of "bad instructors" after him. I had really to struggle to remember this guy when writing the post because it was a bit of a Joke brining him in, that and he was not allowed to teach an evening class. He only taught a noon class one time, we all pretty much went to our instructor and asked that we not have to repeat that class at night. He had everything that I don’t like about Karate; Ego, poor teaching skills, poor interpersonal skills and adding to his "I" am better issues he also had the "Worship me" Down pat.

So, why am I again blogging about this "gent" well, Months and months after I posted a long blog with a snippet about this guy...one of his students, I am assuming by the veracity of the email...has chosen to hit me up with a reply to that blog. Early this morning as I sat down to do my end of month Blog, one that was to be about “Teachers vs Student” differences in black belt who pick one or the other path…and here is this email saying I have a reply to my blog. The info I got is this guy was searching thru the blogs and came across my little piece of the blogisphere..and he took issue with my post…one in which I do not name any names at all…just post some facts and let others read them. This student even signed up for the Blog info so that he could make the comment to me…a lot of effort for someone replying to a post that does not even mention the instructor by name!

It’s funny however; he questions my facts and opinion of this instructor, whom he guessed I was talking about, a post in which I don’t name names and most people with a life wont go and live on the web to connect any dots!. Now it’s funny, because the facts he offers in response are horribly wrong and laughable. They show the guy has truly drank the cool-aide and is not thinking straight. Here is his reply...with the instructors name deleted, because I am not trying to make this a personal attack on the instructor. I simply did not like the way he taught that day! Who knows, maybe he took a class and got better??

“ The blogger Kensei is extremely disrespectful and should get his facts straight. I believe that he is referring to Sensei .” Cool so I go to lengths not to name names were I review the guys teaching ability, much like a movie critic and you go and blast his name on the web…who does this serve…

“Sensei .” graduated from the JKA Instructor Program as it existed in .” before the death of Sensei Nakayama, former Chief Instructor of the Japan Karate Association. Sensei .” was graded to Yondan and awarded a B Instructor License by Sensei Nakayama. Sensei .” is the only non-Japanese graduate of the old JKA Instructor Program.” Wait a tick, so he is the “ONLY” Non-Japanese to graduate from the old instructor training program….well, besides getting your facts wrong, the “OLD” instructor training program continued unchanged thru to todays date. And we have Walter Crockford from Canada and we now have a gent by the name of Elmar Caagbay, Don’t know anything about him but he does not sound Japanese! The JKA also lists several non-japanese of whom all have graduated and have been release, kicked out or removed themselves from the JKA of their own will…Tamang Pemba is a non-Japanese instructor whom is with the NSKF and is very well known and respected…spoke with him over the web a few times and he is a respectful and nice person. Others who were in the program and did not complete or left their after are Ennio Vessulli, Nigel Jackson, Pete Pacheco, Leon Montoya, Richard Amos,and Pascal Lesage. Mr. Amos is a instructor of a friend of mine and also a very nice gent, and from what I have been told a heck of a good instructor.

“Sensei .” made himself unwelcome in certain quarters by revealing subsequent serious financial improprieties at the JKA. After the death of Sensei Nakayama these financial improprieties contributed to the breakup of the old JKA into several factions and to almost a decade of litigation amongst these factions. Please note that the present JKA is not the same organization as the original JKA and does not recognize many former JKA instructor program graduates, including Sensei .”Wow, thats a whole lot of wrong info that could get the instructors who repeat it in a lot of legal hot water! First off the JKA split over the name, its VERY well documented that the Asai side and the JKA side were arguing about the name JKA and the use of it. Asai sensei’s side felt that due to the fact that Nakayama left no replacement as chief instructor when he passed on that Asai should be the chief instructor. However, the Nakahara group felt that they had ownership over the name and the organization. A lengthy court battle ensued and the Nakahara group won out and to this day are the owners of the JKA name. Your assertion that the split was over money and that the instructor in question had ANYTHING to do with it is laughable. For the record, you can see the legal battle and how it played out…BY GOOGLING IT….nowhere in the many articles I have read did it mention that there was an issues like is suggested here. And at this point I believe that the instructor in question was already long forgotten by the JKA and Asai side of the argument. I don’t think the instructor in question played a large role in the splitting of a group that he had left…been removed…kicked out…ran away from! He was in his home country by the time the JKA unraveled and I really don’t think that “an outsider” would have access to the financial information in question!

“.” learned his skills through 5 years of daily practice at both the old JKA and at top Japanese University Clubs. He has a legendary tournament record. He has analyzed basic JKA movements and has identified several areas for both speed and deliverable energy improvement. Some of this analysis is available at www. .”. Blogger Kensei should study this material.” I took a class from him, I was unimpressed to say the least. Found it a waste of my time when I had a far better instructor that I trained with daily and nothing he was doing was even remotely “new”, I have trained under some of the most senior Karate instructors in the world (Nakayama, Tanaka, Ueki, Yaguchi, Okizaki, Koyama, Takashina, Mikami) and he could not hold their gi bag to be frank. I don’t dispute that he was a great Karate fighter, and he did go TO the JKA instructor training program. But I suggest the facts his student tries to lay out…well they are influenced by him being the student of the instructor in question! (can you say hero worship?)

I have also been to his web site and to be frank, he is trying to re-invent the wheel and make it look the SAME as it is…but with more BS to shine it up. Is this anything new…No, I have ran into so many instructors whom try to put a spin on Karate and throw their name on it and call it theirs, all while trying to say that they come from a JKA root but their Karate is different. The only person that can say that with any truth to their assertion of a new form of Shotokan would be Asai Sensei and all his followers because he truly did change JKA Karate. This other instructor, along with the countless others…not so much!

“Being taught by .” is a privilege, not a right, .” deals with kumite reality, not student feelings. In order to benefit from instruction by .” Kensei must first acknowledge his own limitations.
Regards,
.”

Wow, does that not scream of CULT! Instructors should not be placed on a pedestal so high, they tend to disappoint in the long run when that is done. They are human and in most cases flawed as much as the other guys who don’t wear white pajamas. This is what is WRONG with Karate today, and has been for so much longer than should be allowed. Hero worship and cult mentalities don’t have a place in Karate…. well they do but they shouldn’t! I fully admit my limitations, I am getting older and older and the body does not respond the way it used to. But to be frank, I don’t worship at the altar of the “SENSEI”, I know my sensei personally and he is flawed like the rest of us, and would NEVER suggest it is a “Privilege” to train with him….that is stupid! He however does welcome people to come and train with him, he has been teaching longer than most have been in Karate and he still has his ego under control. I also would establish that I have limitations as much as the next guy, but suggesting that the instructor now know on my blog as does not is stupid and cultish itself.

Moral of the story kids, Instructors are flawed, People are flawed and often…students drink the cool-aide that some instructors feed them and make the humans into Gods….I don’t want to be around when this student hits rock bottom and realizes that the instructor is just as human as others, or he takes a class with a better instructor….God I hate martial arts Groupies!

Home Training vs Dojo training

Not everyone has a tone of extra time to work out at home, and not everyone can make it to the Dojo every day to train. This means you need to strike a balance in your training. The one thing I notice the most when talking to others about their home work outs and their thoughts on Dojo work outs is that a few of them have drastically different ideas of what they should be all about.

Home work, or home work outs should be working on conditioning and working no the lessons that Sensei has presented in class so he does not have to go back over it again and again with students unless it’s a new aspect or correction of a technique.

The training at home should be right out of the book…the note book you bring to class. Instructors teach a class with a specific idea and or fundamental in mind, be it rotation, movements, a specific Kata or particular techniques that needs work. They then teach a class and focus on that idea or fundamental and hope that students take that lesson home and work on it or stick about after class and work on it.

Literally take the lessons that Sensei has taught in class that week and go over them in your living room, basement or hallways as best you can. Try and figure out what the main idea of class was and push yourself to perform the class focus as much as you can. This way when you go back to class, assuming you have done your work and progressed, you can get a new lesson to work on and try to perfect.

Class time is all about new things, if done right. If the students are not moving ahead and doing their home work then it is about rehashing the old class and pushing your class to actually do the home work…in class time. Going back over old ideas that should have been mastered already and trying to build on skills that we have already gone over in class. However, when a student or whole class does do their home work, the sword starts to show its edge. The class progresses and builds on itself and soon enough the information that Sensei is handing out is worked on by the students to the point that he moves on to more advanced things.

Right after class sit down and write out notes on the class. Try and stick to what you did and not what you think the point was. Write out: Warm up (H 1-5), Kihon: Sanbon zuki, Ippon kumite Sanbon Kumite…ext. Once you have written it out go home and try to just put facts down, unless Sensei says “we are working on timing tonight” or “we need to focus on hip vibration at the end of Oi-zuki” or something specific like that.

Once you are at home go back over your notes. Read them and if Sensei did not spend a lot of time on something don’t worry about it, try and find out the theme of the night. Write notes on your notes to give you something personal to go on and then incorporate those notes and Sensei’s lessons into your home work outs. The home work out is time to really polish up and focus on the lessons that Sensei has given out thru the week.

Home training gives you the opportunity to train on your own and work on your own weaknesses as well. If you know you have a weak side kick and want to improve it you can throw that in to the mix, or if you are very inflexible it gives you extra stretching time to work on that hurdle. Karate is not about being a top athlete its about challenging your own hurdles and overcoming them. Its about working at home and the club to be a bit better than you were before…all the time.

Home training can not be the “staple” of your training however. It has some specific draw backs that one has to keep in mind. No instructor to correct you is a big one. We see a lot of self taught people with massive flaws in their techniques, and they expect them to be fantastic because they do those THOUSANDS of times…but doing it a thousand times wrong just makes it more ingrained in you…wrong!

The other drawback is you are very limited in what you can do by yourself. You cannot do impact training, sparring or some conditioning exercises that may take a partner. At a dojo you have a partner to train with and test your techniques; you have a partner to hold the kicking pads or a instructor to work on your form with you. At home you just have yourself….and that can be good for Kata work and for some work, but you really are limited in what you can do at home…that is not to say that you should not work at home, it means that what you do at home…has to be done at the club with your instructor watching and a partner to test yourself against.

If you choose to skip on or the other you are selling yourself short and wasting your instructor’s time. If he has to go back over lessons and techniques over and over again he cannot get to the advanced information that he has for you. If you are not at class enough, you don’t get to progress along with others and eventually you will fall behind or find yourself working only on some items and not progressing the way you can!

The students that I have seen progress naturally, smoothly and to the level of physical and mental understanding do both training at home and at the club. Those that just train at the club have a decent grasp of what is expected of them, but tend to be…well they are not creative. They learn the book stuff and cannot make it their own. They become cookie cutter students that look like every other student, this is not bad…but they tend to simply do what they have seen. Those that train at home only and miss more classes than they should tend to be sloppy and stray way off the curriculum and miss growing in Karate as they flounder trying to work their way thru basics and correct issues and mistakes without the help of an instructor. Ego is often their worst enemy!

Back in the old days we used to say go to class four times or more a week, however I understand the issues of family and time constraints. I would say going two to three times a week is enough to advance to a good level in Karate, and then working out two to three times a week at home is a good number of times to work on weak points and focus on what you did in class. More is often better, but the minimum time for training in class would be a solid class a week with more home training.

As I got older and family started to demand more of my night time activities I changed my six days a week at the club and once a week at home for the opposite. I now go to class once a week to work on Kumite and spend five to six times a week at home pushing thru Kata and drills to try and keep the flames going. More class time would be better, but I have to deal with modern family needs and such.

The most important thing is to not let two days between training go by. Try and do some kind of training each day, even if its just some very basic drills like block and counter basics. Try and get to the club as often as you can and push to not let a week go buy without at least one class. And remember that training at home and at the Dojo should have different focuses and they serve different purposes and not one is better than the other, they both lead to the end goal of improvement and both are equally important.