Difference Diversity and the art of teaching Karate

Difference Diversity and the art of teaching Karate

            Over the past 30+ years I have trained with many different instructors in the Dojo and at seminars. Some I came to know very well and others I observed from deep in the throngs all training at a seminar. I have observed all of their teaching methods, Tokui Waza and their ability to reach other others when teaching. Some were phony and came across as plastic and over practiced while others stuttered and fell over words trying to deliver basic commands.  My view on instruction and my skill set as a teacher came from all of these sources as well as the teaching skills and styles of countless school teachers, university professors and those that I have studied under in collage.

            It stands to reason that my instructor has had the most impact on my ability and teaching style as I have trained under him the most. But when he watches me teach he has told me that I don’t remind him of his style of teaching. At first I was kind of hurt till he told me that diversity in approach is what students need to find their own Karate!

            Years ago Sensei posted a sign on the door going from the mens change room to the training floor it read simply….”SHU HA RI” and that was all, Hand written in black marker on a white paper. He did not really explain it to us, not that I was told, but it just sat their for a while every time we left the change room screaming “Look me up” at us. I think I was one of the few that went and found a book at the library that said something about it….this was before the internet…Yes I am that old….

            Shu Ha Ri stands for “Protect”, “Detach” and “Separate or leave”. It’s a very Martial arty philosophy that I have taken to guide my teaching and growing new instructors in our The idea behind Shu Ha Ri is that an instructor or student starts off learning the core priciples of a style. They study under a master/instructor for a long time and they come to understand and practice the core of a system. They grasp onto and covet the teachings of the instructor and they make the practice part of them. Then they student/instructor will move to detach themselves from the system and they will start to remove that which does not fit their personality and personal style as it has developed from exploring the system deeply. And finally they leave the system all together and show their personal style exclusively.

            This makes no sense to some who read this and think one of two things “its all just kicking and punching that makes no sense” or “why do they bother training in a system then make their own”…and while both seem valid…they just show the level of complexity of the Martial philosophy.

            Think of it this way….you enter a school to learn a trade or Musical instrument and KNOW NOTHING about how to use the tools of the trade. You study under a teacher and build your skills.  After a while you start digging around other ideas, skills or tools and start to build your personal skills and ideas. You work with trial and error and build up both your knowledge of the instrument/skill trade and find new ways to get to the same spot that seem to be more purposeful for you. After a while you can abandon the skill sand techniques that were taught to you and do your own thing…but your goals are still the same.

            To be more clear let me explain my walk through Massage school.  When I got to the school everyone told me I was a natural massage”er” and that I should get into it…but I had no skills really, I thought I had but I did not. I studied the techniques of the instructors I had and I practiced like crazy, studied books on anatomy and physiology and worked every day to getting better. I slowly began to master the strokes and compression techniques that the instructors taught me and I became very good at repeating the prescribed techniques that they taught.  This is the Shu part of the learning process.

            After a while I started watching Youtube videos and videos and experimenting with different things, but still working the traditional strokes and techniques. I practiced and merged different techniques together to try and get to the same outcome and then built off of this and started expanding my tool box. This is the Ha part of training. I was breaking from the traditional way that was taught to me and exploring a bit, but still keeping the traditions in mind.

            After I graduated and had a lot of practice I began to leave some of the traditional stuff behind, I hated doing some movements and found them unpleasant to do and less than impressed when I had them done on me. I took aspects of the traditional stuff and tossed it out the window.  I had transcended the old traditions and created a new style for my massage. And then it became tradition and I was back to Shu!

            So, how does this apply to teaching Karate?  When you start out teaching you should first look at what your instructor’s current style is. What art they teaching, how are they getting the message across and what do they focus on!  Then repeat it in classes, let that style set in but then try and add your own personal swerve on it. Begin looking around at others, implement changes to your system, your style and your techniques of communication. After a while you will notice that while you still hold the core values of what is being taught you are totally different than your instructor.

            Eventually you will find your style is now your tradition and at that point you should start exploring again, finding new ideas, new systems and new communication avenues and then bring that in to refresh the tradition and finally create a new one.

            In my current club we have about five different instructors who all teach a variety of classes. One of the things that I try and impart on the students is that they should try and train with as many different instructors in the club as possible because we all have our own point of view and styles for teaching. I try and tell the instructors that they need to be different from one another and not try to cover the same things the same way. Some are newer and still in the SHU phase of learning and teaching and look at me like I am crazy. Others are already in the curve of learning, adapting, changing and relearning and get it.

            What we are teaching may be very similar or even the same but how we teach it should always be our own ideas, our own views and our own ways of doing things. We will focus on different things and we will impart different ideas to what we are doing. That is the correct way to learn and teach martial arts. 

Karate and Occam’s razor.: Critical thinking in Karate applications from Kata.

 

                Occam’s razor is a problem solving principle that was penned by William of Ockham, an English Franciscan friar and scholastic philosopher and theologian who lived between 1287 and 1347.  Essentially the principle states “among competing hypothesis, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected”.  So, what the hell does this have to do with Karate….a great deal if you are asking what a Kata interpretation or Bunkai is!

                In Science Occams Razor is used as a heuristic technique (Discovery tool) to guide scientists in the development of theoretical models, or rather…to use my own words it’s a way tool that scientists use to set up educated guesses about things they don’t have “proof” of.  It is not a result but a hypothesis as to outcomes. Ockham did not invent the theory, he just mastered its use. He also had some very important things to say about creation of multiple hypothesis around specific questions. He said “entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity”  or Don’t create to many hypothetical answers to a single question.

                So, again…what the heck does this have to do with Karate. Well take into account the number of Bunkai for each movement in kata. Some clubs teach nearly 20 Bunkai for each Kata move, its borderline ridiculous and most of them are far stretches from the plausible intent. But how to argue this without reverting to “I think its stupid cuz it is”. Well, Occam’s razor has an answer for this. First off you have to deal with the number of bunkai being spewn out by the “masters of bunkai creation” and let them know that multiple applications is not necessarily the best way to go, a few is okay, but 20 for a down block…well that’s excessive.

It’s important to also note that it’s not wrong, or stupid, it’s just a lot to learn and not the intent of bunkai training to be frank. However when teaching a standard class and introducing the idea of application to a student, its best to only focus on one or two applications per move. If you introduce more you tend to confuse a student and the strength of the work is limited. When learning Bunkai you should be shaving away the applications that don’t seem very applicable and don’t serve ton confuse the situation.

When I started Karate there was no Internet, we simply went about our day without cell phones and internet access and for Karate we actually had to go to the Dojo and train and listen to what the Sensei said, he told us what his instructor had told him, who was teaching what his instructor told him, along the way some personal insight was thrown in and the style grew a bit. But with the advent and implementation of cell phones and the internet ON cell phones I have seen the implementation of personal ideas into Bunkai Grow exponentially till its much like a competition to see who can create the most interesting, dynamic and completely different applications to show insight and creativeness and all it has served to do in my mind is create confusion with the students and an opportunity for some to thumb their nose at tradition and insight and kind of create a new dogma or ideology saying that they are right because they know better. Its bunk not bunkai!

Occam’s razor has gained a lot of notoriety in fields as far apart as mechanical engineering and theology, from medical deductions to astrophysics. And I use it in Karate a lot to try and figure out what is the best way to train, learn and teach specific ideas and movement skills, to interpret Kata bunkai and to expand my understanding of human movement and interactions in dynamic movement. The scary part is not that there is a huge amount of variation in Karate and movements skills, it’s the lack of thought and analysis that goes into a personas approach to Karate. People tend not to be practical or pragmatic when it comes to Karate and movement skills, they see out fancy and ineffective movements and replace the simple and effective with them.  If a student were to use the razor in their though process then they would see that often, not all the time, the fancy moves they throw or the crazy applications they come up with are a hindrance, not a help.

                One thing that the razor does that ticks off Karate people is that it does not state that your application is WRONG, it’s says it’s not likely to work, or less likely to work in real life as opposed to this other application. That’s is simply something that Karate people don’t get. The thing in Karate is one master will offer up their “understanding” of a Bunkai and then the other will come along and say “No, that’s crap, the application is this”! and there you have the black and white approach to Karate. The Razor suggests that there are multiple “correct” ways for something to be used, but that one is “more right” than another…now you just lost 90% of black belts! They were taught yes and no, right and wrong…not right and left sometimes but right and wrong for sure…and the answer is that they are right…ergo everyone else is wrong…or was that Ego?

                Now like some well-known “anti-Razor” philosophers I will admit that some of the Bunkai I have seen would make me say “even if they are not true, they are well conceived”.  Getting down to brass tacks, when you do a Kata you should be looking for a few applications you can use to identify what you are doing….my suggestion is to get a partner and a good senior or instructor and go over your ideas, see if they work, to what degree to they work and can you replicate them easily? If so, they have passed the Karate version of the Occam’s razor.