The Asai Branch of Shotokan.....Diversity, Ego and issues....and some solid leadership!

               Early on Shotokan was made up of essentially two smaller groups set up in the university system and a small group of senior professional instructor. It would not stay this direct and small for long. The style BLEW up and dozens of off shoots were formed and continue to form little off shoots for years to come. Groups sloughed off of the main body as issues, personality clashes or just old fashioned money arguments started to pile up and people through the hands up in frustration or the larger groups would send them the “Dear John” letters alerting them to the fact that they were no longer welcome in the family.

               Some left for more freedom, some left to rule their own fiefdoms, some left because they did not get along and others left because they lacked patience or just plan were feeling like they deserved more. Right or wrong the splits began with little chunks of groups, single masters and clubs moving over and the once clean and clear organization became a sea of new organizations, practitioners getting more attention and then seeking to form their own groups.

                

               Essentially you have two main branches that form the Shotokan lineage or tree, the JKA and the ShotoKai. Again, I have spoken at length about the Shotokai and The main body of the JKA and I don’t want to rehash that here. The JKA branch however is very interesting as it intersects with a lot of sub branches and groups that can look back and say they were formed off the JKA branches.  

               The JKA wing or branches origin falls under Masatoshi Nakayama and Isao Obata Sensei’s as the leadership, creators or founders of the JKA. Yes Obata left and came back and then left again but his money helped make the JKA and he deserves recognition as one of the founding fathers of Shotokan Karate as a JKA entity.

From Masatoshi Nakayama Sensei however we see a vast degree of changes and separations that create a flowing branch with off shoots like crazy. At some point it’s important to note that Kanazawa was the first real senior or “Big name” star to leave the JKA and his departure was because of a change in his thinking, training and system he taught (well that’s part of it). He also wanted financial separation from the JKA so he could make a living and also he felt he was advanced enough to make his own way. Details of that are for another time however.

               Many small off shoots appeared and have split away from the JKA over the years, mostly ego, money and power issues caused the split, but the biggest split, one that formed  a huge separation was the split with the Asai group, made up of many JKA seniors. The initial split formed two sides, the JKA and Asai side, but what happened later is more interesting. Now I know I have gone over this split before, but its important to rehash a few details here to point out a interesting bit of info that I fell upon a while back and just decided to clarify recently.

               In 1987 the split occurred and both sides went to war, by 1999 the courts had finally and completely sided with the Nakahara run JKA and expelled all the Asai side members. The repercussions of this were far reaching, but I don’t want to actually look at the JKA at this point. I want to go and check out the Asai group.

               While the court battle was going on the Asai group was super close knit, they were strong and they taught a brutally traditional system of Karate, Asai holding close to the most detailed traditional system he could as he wanted to following Nakayamas path and then veer slightly when he could. The court ruling however allowed him to pull off his gloves and make changes to the training as he wanted to, he began showing his own ideas and creating an “Asai Karate” system that he had previously not demonstrated openly. He had researched Chinese styles and had implemented some Kata changes previously but it was when he realized he was not going to be the next JKA chief instructor that the changes started coming fast and furious.

               Abe and Yahara split to form their own groups shortly after the court battle saw them “no longer JKA”. Abe formed his JSKA to keep super traditional and honor his instructor and Yahara formed his KWF to also go back to a more Budo style art that he could put his own personal stamp on. However the whole point of this blog is to look at what Asai did after finding himself on a splinter group side and no longer the leader of a JKA group.

               When Asai Sensei lost the court battle he formed the JKS or Japan Karate Shotorenmei as well as the International Japan Karate do Association or IJKA. The JKS was a Japanese based group that began to teach the altered system of Asai Sensei and allowed him to experiment and develop his system. Asai went about creating many new Kata and introduced them to the students. The result was a style very unique and different than JKA style Karate with roots in the Japanese art but with a great deal of personal changes that he implemented after studying White Crane Kung fu.

The JKS became the Japan arm of Asai’s teaching and much of his mainstream changes began with this group. He began introducing different kata and movement drills to reflect changes he was making. His students who had trained with him in the JKA Matsuno faction mostly moved to this group when he lost in court. The changes in syllabus and curriculum soon put the JKS membership at odds with each other and members like Yahara, Abe and others left.  

               After Asai Sensei passed away the organization was headed by Kagawa Sensei, a man whom had a great tournament record and was perhaps more JKA than he was in line with the New Asai Karate. The JKS began to change and move away from the change that the former founder had put in place and move back towards solid traditional JKA style Karate but they do maintain some of the changes and the alterations that Asai Sensei had put into play, they just temper them a bit with more traditional Shotokan ideals and movement patterns. 

               Along with the JKS the IJKA was being run by Asai as his European branch. The main instructor was Kato Sensei, who unlike Kagawa moved a great deal like Asai did and the changes became second nature. The IJKA is probably the closest to the changes that Asai wanted to put into effect of the two groups. Flowing, relaxed and more Chinese than the JKS version of the changes the differences between the two are striking when you see seniors practice side by side. However watching their Kata demonstrations and Kato showing the proper form, you can still see a great deal of Nakayama Sensei’s Karate influence.

               My impressions of the different movement skills of Kagawa, Kato and seniors from these groups, the focus of the groups was similar, to spread the teachings that they were introduced to by Asai Sensei. The JKS was based in Japan and had a great deal of hype about being “The Asai” Sensei group. However the IJKA was heavily represented in Europe, with a headquarters in the UK.  The JKS has stretched out to some of the world, but the IJKA seems to have started in Europe after Asai passed away.

               Now all this back ground has taken me to this point in talking about Asai Sensei and his legacy. Other than the two “Official” or “Original” Groups of Asai style Karate (and the many little off shoots like WTKO and others) there are now two new groups set up to represent Asai Karate and they are very much different from each other.

               Upon Asai Sensei’s passing his wife was sort of out of the Karate world for a bit, she had never really had much to do with Karate or running the organization before this as well. The seniors did not really see her as having a place in the JKS or IJKA as she was not a Karate practitioner. However as the wife of their late master she still was afforded a great deal of respect, and a lot of students would contact her and stop by her home to pay respect to Asai at the little temple they had in the house. However she was not part of a board, she was not, obviously, part of a senior council and I think this began to cause her distress. She felt that she had inherited a right to the Karate system, or at least a piece of the political pie.

               The JKS was run by Kagawa and Kato ran the IJKA and did not need her being involved, which probably would have only lead to issues. However she did keep tabs on them and at some point she decided she needed to “Protect Asai Karate” and establish an organization to safeguard the memory of her late husband. At first she approached a few people to assist her in setting up the group, but shortly after it was established a few things became very clear and those who had helped her set up this group left. One of the first things that came to light was her assertions that Asai sensei “would have done it this way” and using her late husband’s name to make some very strange decisions.

               One of the decisions she made was to hijack the IJKA name that Kato had been running for years.  She had fought with Kata publicly and did not take well to his standing his ground to her. One of the people helping her to set up the organization had warned her that the use of the name could lead to issues, to which she ignored the suggestion and bullied forwards.

                The second and biggest issue that she created was that she put her brother in charge as the Nidaime Shuseki Shihan or second generation head of the style. Who cares if her brother never studied Asai Karate and was a kung fu student who had limited interaction with Asai Sensei and his Karate. Today the IJKA is an organization basically in Taiwan and has not grown much aside from a sprinkling of Dojos in Europe and other Asian areas.

               It became very obvious that Mrs. Asai would attack anyone she felt would hinder her progress, as extremely limited as it is. She posts on their web page the dirty laundry most would not post and she attacks people who had been loyal to Asai Sensei very publicly. A spat with one of Asai Senseis students was posted on the web site and a picture that is obviously of Andre Bertal appears where she says that the certificate he holds is not a real Asai certificate.

               Mrs. Asai also is prominent on the web page as she posts her ideas of Bushido and other things, which as she is a non-practitioner of Karate makes it all the more interesting.

               No other group I have seen does  the kinds of things that the IJKA out of Taiwan does, but that stands to reason as they are not really high level Karate people and don’t have the depth of training or knowledge most have. Its unheard of for groups to air dirty laundry like this….but damn if it aint entertaining.       

               The Mrs. Asai lead IJKA group created a conflict internally by not actually focusing on Asai Karate, letting to much drama run the show and this lead to several people leaving the group to form their own groups. One such separation created the ASAI or Asai Shotokan Association International. The group was formed by Yokota Kousaku, a former JKA member who worked with Okizaki Sensei of the ISKF and had moved to the JKS before being a founding member of Mrs. Asai’s IJKA.

The ASAI group teaches 26 of Asai Sensei’s additional Kata as well as a solid JKA based curriculum. The group was forged out of Yokota Sensei’s trying to help Mrs. Asai set up the organization that was supposed to be dedicated to continuing teaching her late spouses system of Karate. To say that did not work out very well is a understatement. One of Mrs. Asai’s personal attacks on her web site is dedicated to Mr. Yokota. Having read both her site and his sites rebuttal I can say that he puts forward a much better argument and is much more respectful than she is…..but go read both for yourself.

The very public spat that came about when he left did not look good for Mrs. Asai and ended up creating a new group she has zero control over. In the end Yokota’s Asai Karate organization has become much more prevalent and has a much better growth curve than the IJKA-Mrs. Asai group. And as part of the full disclosure of this blog, I have been in contact with Mr.Yokota about his group and he is super open and wants to share his organizations goals and how he is running it with an open door policy and no hidden agenda.

After Asai Sensei passed away he, much like his mentor Nakayama Sensei, did not really leave one single person to continue in his quest. Asai Sensei and his Karate are perpetuated by qualified instructors like Yokota, Kagawa and Kato Sensei and their many followers, while I remain JKA I respect the fact that Asai Sensei had some different ideas that may very well be worth looking into and these men openly teach and train in the system that he generated and perpetuated, unlike instructors like Chen Hontsung and his sister these men will honor Asai and his traditions and create an open door for people to continue training and growing in Karate.

                

Meiyo: Honor

Meiyo is one of the cornerstones of Bushido, which is the code by which Japanese warriors lived. As of late I have been looking at the 8 tenants of Bushido and really seeing the connection to Karate and the practice of the fighting arts, and more so how modern training and traditions (I am looking at you MMA) is devoid of these tenants and actually how many modern Martial artist are not taught these, or don’t exhibit them in their daily lives.

               Funakoshi Sensei is famous for saying “Dojo nomino Karate to Omou na” or “Karate goes beyond the Dojo> This means that Karate and the behavior of the artists that train in the Dojo must go outside of the dojo. The honor, respect and traditions must seep into your daily lives. This is why we get upset when students misbehave outside of the Dojo as much as we do when they act poorly inside the club.

               It is equally as disgusting when you see instructors use their “powers” or “position” to do things that they should not be, or act ways that they should not be acting. I hate when people don’t own their misbehavior and or have excuses built in for their poor behavior. Some will look at the behavior and say “well that’s just Don” or “that’s just his way”. No, its not….Don is  a jerk (not all Dons, just that done…you know the one acting like a jerk).

               The laws of Bushido were the “unwritten” kind for many years. The Nobility sort of knew what was expected of them and they behaved as nobility would, to extremes sometimes mind you but hey that’s nobility for you (See built in excuses).  When Bushi finally started to write out the virtues and discuss them in training they came up with several “Ideals” of what they needed use to affect how the powerful were acting to both keep the peace and also bring a certain responsibility to the noble warriors.

               The virtues that were put forwards in the end all of them were geared towards behavior and how a warrior must conduct themselves. All of them are still pertinent and should be adheared to by Martial arts students and instructors and used as a guide for selecting Uchi Deshi and general students. Some are harder to gage in others, but things you have to think about in yourself.

               Meiyo or Honor is a very personal thing and reflects directly on the individual but also their club and instructors. How one carries themselves, reacts and interacts with others are all reflections of the persons character. Honor is one of those things that is judged by many  who interact with you but true honor is only owing to one judge, the self. How you do things, how you treat others, how you behave are all part of Meiyo and reflect your true inner character.

               Webster’s Dictionary defines Honor as “A keen sense of ethical conduct: Integrity”. Honor and integrity are closely connected. Honor is one of those things that can be faked. I have met a lot of people that laced integrity or Honor as they told lies or found excuses for their actions and hid behind them not wanting to tell the truth. They lacked honor and were cowardly.  Personally I have had to apologize for my actions in the past, but I own them. I feel that this is my way of expressing my honor. I have made big mistakes, honest mistakes and when I found out about them….if I felt that I was wrong…I issued an immediate apology. Others will push past mistakes, blame others, lie and deceive themselves to avoid taking ownership of their issues. This is a total lack of honor!

               As a martial artist I have accidently hurt other people, or inadvertently done something that harmed someone, like trying a Shiho nage on a friends kid as a “Funny thing” and hurt their shoulder. I was showing off a bit and hurt him. I immediately felt bad and apologized a for the injury (it was minor but I was very upset with myself). However I also use the Shinai and sometimes a Bokken to correct people and on occasion I will swat someone’s butt with it if they are not fast enough, or inadvertently nick them with the stick. I have never hit anyone hard enough to leave a mark as that is not the point of correcting with these. The one time someone complained about it to me (through someone else) I apologized that they felt that way, explained my thinking and then said to the person I will continue to do this however as it is part of teaching Karate! I have the integrity to admit that it may have shocked or upset someone, but equally I have the integrity to let them know its not about to change.

               Meiyo is personal to an extent. Only you should internally judge yourself, when others judge your honor it is false for the majority of the time. They are judging your actions externally and most of the time they don’t know what is going on in your head, why you reacted that way on that specific occasion, they are judging the act not you and confusing the two.

               Honor is one of those things that you should strive to correct, forge, polish and reinforce as often as you can. Its about learning how to treat others, how to react properly and how to live your life morally and with integrity both inside and outside of the Dojo.

              

                

Traditional progress in training.

 

               

Again, I am admitting that I am a bit of an old fashioned guy when it comes to my Karate training. As part of that adherence to the old ways of training I take pride in monitoring and managing the training of my students. I don’t teach them things that are beyond their current skill set, I used to think instructors who let their students learn Kata way outside their training level were bad instructors….I now think that they are just misguided. Students learn at different paces but when you attend some clubs you see brown belts doing advanced Kata way outside the curriculum and they normally…are not doing them well.

                Growing up in Karate we were told to train in your own lane, or to keep your nose in your own book. Basically we were told that if you were a white belt you did Heian Shodan (Granted now things have changed a bit with rank requirements, but you get the point) and you did not do free style Kumite much or work on any Kihon that was just outside your ability. This was supposed to help bring your skills up to the next level and help you improve your skill set slowly, get you ready for the next step and not rush you or let you jump to far ahead.  It worked well and the curriculums were cemented because of this. The JKA has even gone to great lengths to improve on this ideology by including more junior ranks, adding Taekyoku to the mix and addressing the need for better Kihon by slowing down ranking in the Kyu levels.

                Now I see brown belts learning Sochin, not just having fun with it but honestly learning them for training and competition purposes. I see purple belts learning Kanku Dai and I see Orange belts working on Jion. It’s maddening for someone that knows that they are not ready for this leap. They are not technically mature enough to handle this and it shows in the demonstration of the Kata. This also draws away from their training on the curriculum.  Most students train 2-3 times a week maximum, they are not in the Dojo every day like we were in the old days. I would be doing Bassai Dai (when I was a brown belt) 4-6 times a week in class (most times 2 classes a day when I could) and on the week end I would slip into the club (I had keys I was not breaking in) and do more of the 15 Kata but always Bassai dai over and over. This added up and over time you begin to internalize the Kata, but the new students only get 1-2 classes a week in some cases and they don’t work out on their own, add into the fact that some are now doing Sochin, how well do you think they get to know their grading Katas?

                I also see young orange belts doing Jiyu Kumite at tournaments and I physically flinch when I see the horror show that is in front of me. They barely know their own body or the techniques and suddenly they are hitting each other and throwing horrible techniques, some get hurt from the hard impact and some get hurt from twisting joints the wrong way. The instructors shrug and say that they are accidents, but they are preventable. The instructors say that the students want to learn the advanced Kata or Kumite training…so? Students are STUDENTS they should be taught the basics, given a solid foundation and then when they are ready they should be taught the next level of techniques or the next Kata or given training in the next level of Kumite. Until that time they should be working on the fundamentals for THEIR level!

                We use rank belts to denote rank…this is the level of understanding a student has and what they should be working on.  The Niju Kun was one of Funakoshi Sensei’s greatest compilations of work that he left to us. In the Niju Kun it says “Karate do no shogyowa issho de aru” or Karate is a lifelong pursuit. As my instructor used to say “Karate is a marathon, not a sprint”! Don’t rush to know things above your skill set or outside of your own syllabus, instead focus on the core fundamentals of your Karate.  As students and instructors we have to step back and focus on the things that will make solid Karate-ka out of our students and not rush to learn above our grade. Funakoshi also said “Hita kata sanen” or “one Kata….three years of training”.  We don’t come close to this kind of training today, more like “One Kata…three months of training”.  For our part the JKA has slowed progress and JKAMB has slowed it even more. We now focus on the improvement of Waza over fancy training and we teach students patience, perseverance and focus on improvement.

                What strikes me the most as an instructor is the students focus and insistence on advancement in skill when they simply are not ready to move forwards. What strikes me as a student of the arts is that some instructors are blinded by the same need for advancement as the students are. They don’t see that the goal should not be on doing the next level Kata or getting the next color belt, but on perfection of the weapons and systems we are training in.  My instructor always said that you have to learn to crawl before you stand, you need to perfect standing before walking and you need to walk well before you run, or your running will get you hurt!...okay, it falls apart at the end but you know what I mean.

 

                I remember going to Ottawa  a bunch of years back and Tanaka Sensei had brought with him the students from a university he taught at. The students for the most part wore white belts, the odd member of the troop was wearing a black belt and was shown a great deal of respect by the other students. We had a tournament that year and I thought that it was going to be a bunch of white belts all competing against other white belts, but the white belts were all lining up to spar with seniors in the Canadian group. I was rather perplexed by this and scared for the white belts, whom all looked eager and friendly enough…My thoughts were that they would get torn up and think us mean people for making them spar against seniors…the funny part they did not look scared at all and Tanaka Sensei did not seem upset at all that they were going to face Saeki Sensei’s seniors.  Then the tournament started…..

                A curious thing happened, the white belts were all lined up and one by one they did their Kata against a Canadian counterpart, they all did Bassai Dai…white belts doing Bassai Dai….and PERFECTLY. They were sharp, snapped and had perfect form and waza. It was a bit embarrassing watching our best go against white belts and not really match up! They Canadians held their own in Kata…..but white belts were making our Senior brown belts look pretty bad! I watched the Kumite matches go on and saw perfect speed, execution of waza so fast and accurate it was scary so I had to ask Mrs. Saeki who the heck these kids were!

                Mrs. Saeki explained to me that the kids were all senior brown belts and black belts with the university that Tanaka Sensei taught at, those wearing white belts were because they refused to wear Kyu level rank belts we normally see.  They have only worn white belts and one of the students was waiting on seeing if he passed his Shodan (which I am sure he did) and was going to wear the white belt till he got the okay to wear a black belt…..all this confused me and really struck me as totally strange!

                The students who came with Tanaka Sensei valued the training and process more than most of us in Canada were. They practiced every day for an hour (on the week ends….4 hours on week days) and I was told that the training was mostly Kihon, basic Kumite…not much Jiyu Kumite and a great deal of Kata work…nothing higher than Bassai Dai however. They were ANIMALS.

 

                Fast forwards to a more recent experience I had. I was talking to a friend on line and they were saying how great the students they trained with were doing, some were fresh Shodans and were training for nationals learning Unsu! I was floored! Then I watched the aforementioned Unsu…and it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that the students should not be doing Unsu. The problem is that instructors rush their students to try and keep them entertained or for fear of losing them to others who will let them push beyond their acceptable skill level. This to me is the epitome of stupidity! Never mind that someone may get hurt or that the school is watering down the training. The students are getting ripped off! They expect traditional standards, traditional skill development and they are getting fast food martial arts.

                A friend of mine once said sport training was important, but roots in the traditional essential. My goal is to focus my students on the traditional essentials, the fundamentals and build both my foundation to be strong as well as those of the students. Students should be focused on learning, working and polishing the basics and the instructor should be holding them back from their natural tendency to push to hard forwards and they should be working on ingraining and hard wiring basics to the students to ensure a proper base in training. This is traditional Karate training and proper progress in the art of Karate.

 

 

Difference between Sport and Traditional Karate.

 

                The other day I was approached by a parent who said they “Don’t want their kid doing no sport KR-atty, just the Traditional stuff”. I was first floored that the parent knew that there was a difference, then I noted that it’s Not KRATTY, but Kara-te!  I mean Sheesh!  But seriously, Every few months the subject of “Traditional” vs” Sport” Comes up and I end up having to revisit the subject for people.

                I have covered this subject in the blog previously several times and honestly its getting old, and I had hoped that the idea of “Sport Karate” would die eventually but it seems, much like a cancer, to be growing and sticking around. The scary part is how many “traditional” students and instructors slip over to the other side and then drink the cool aide or whatever causes this “Haze” and they forget their roots.  One of my friends points out that it’s the marketability of it, but I would counter that being traditional is even more marketable…especially to the parents of kids.

                Before we move forwards with the differences I wanted to point out that some cross over does exist, you cannot deny that we all have four limbs and move relatively the same, it’s the mentality, focus and purpose of the two different systems that make them unique and separate. Also, some will bill it as an evolution in Karate…Poppycock! It’s simply not!

 

                Original, Traditional, Budo, Goshin….whatever you call your “old school” Karate training its purpose is to create better people….either physically or mentally….or spiritually. The focus of Kumite is “Ikken Hissatsu” or one punch, one kill. This is the fundamental ideal for the practice of “old School” Karate, Training with the purpose of developing the perfect technique.  The reality is the pursuit is endless because perfection is not actually attainable, but the ideal of training to polish and “perfect” is the ideal behind “Old School” Karate.

                It is true that the original goals of Karate all boiled down to being able to defend yourself against aggressors, the goals changed when the need to defend yourself lessened. Training is now almost a physically spiritual venture in which we try and “Beat our Souls up and make them better” as one of my students once aptly explained. The ideal is not to gain points or to train to get a dangly medal around our neck.  So, then whey do we do tournaments?  TANREN! Its about forging ourselves, testing our metal and pushing ourselves to the brink so we can improve. A Traditional tournament is a time for students to step up and show not only how hard they have worked for the tournament, but how hard they are working in the club on a daily basis.

                Traditional Karate does not use fancy cycles and the students don’t take summers off to relax and go to the beach, well they may go to the beach to relax…but generally they just came from class…or they are doing Kata on the beach. The point is that traditional Karate does not take a break, it does not “Ramp up” or “Cycle” training, it’s a continuous effort to improve. The goal of “Old School “Karate is to be better….period.

 

                Sport Karate is a short term endeavor. Unlike “old school” or Traditional Karate you only have a short time training and competing before you “Age out” or stop training to compete. This is when your normally training kicks in, or you leave Karate. The training is designed strategically to get you in great shape and teach you to score points, or as one of my instructors once said….”Play tag”.  You are not looking for the perfect technique, just one that will give you one of several points you need to win a Kumite match. No emphasis is put on performing a technique perfectly, other than making it flashy as it can be. The value of Sport Karate is in the training, the short term pre-tournament training that pushes you to your limits to be in great shape. Other than this and the entertainment value it holds little to no actual value to a student.

                Historically the Sport Karate grew out of the Japanese trying to mix styles. See its very difficult to judge a solid Shotokan Kata or Shito Ryu or Goju ryu…heck any Kata next to another styles. Even the Kumite techniques are a bit different. But the systems to allow for different style practitioners to train and compete against each other was created to allow for this very thing to happen. At this point the ideals of self-defense, Ikken Hissatsu and any other key and fundamental ideal of value were left on the curb to allow for sport.  I am not ragging on other styles, I love watching the elegance of Goju ryu and even other styles as they do their Katas. They are not my personal preference but I love watching them.

 

                The objective behind traditional Karate is self-defense and survival. This is based on the concept of the finishing blow, meaning training so that one strike is sufficient to render the attacker unable to continue attacking. In traditional Karate tournaments the point is only awarded to the person that gets the “finishing” blow, or a half point for the person that comes close to this. The purpose of the encounter is to develop the mental and physical ability to deliver the well balanced, technically sound strike with the right mental attitude to emulate this “finishing blow” mentality. Sport Karate however is more about playing tag and scoring multiple points. Points are awarded to the fastest strike regardless of the viability of the technique. There is no need for a finishing blow in this case as they are more concerned with accumulation of points. Traditional fighting is about cultivating the fighting spirit and win the battle, the sports focus is on scoring points…and winning medals.

 

                From a technical stand point the sport Karate is fluid, lacks Kime and is geared more towards athletic builds. The training is designed to work techniques that will score points for those that can build up speed and often lacks control in delivery. The athlete is reactive and will train in a variety of skill winning techniques. The training focuses on explosive movement but little attention is paid to control or focus. The Kiai is used more as a way to alert the judge/referee that the competitor feels they scored a point. Traditional training may focus on as little as 5 techniques to perfection, with perfect timing, Kime and control. The student will review, repeat and develop these techniques until they are reflective and automatic. Timing and distance are all taken into training and often the student will be focused on these techniques exclusively and will be able to deliver them at multiple angles and use them in real defense situations.  The focused training makes these waza (techniques) deadly in defense situations and very effective at tournaments.

 

                Both tournament and traditional training have their value to the students but different greatly in their approach and objectives, set up and techniques. To put it simply “Traditional Karate is an art, whereas sport karate is a sport”. One aspect that traditional Karate often lacks, especially today in modern Dojos, is the lack of “Fight” or need to survive. When I started Karate the training in the club was so harsh that many dropped out because of it. Modern Dojos will turn to sport to introduce the feeling of danger to the training. However sport minded clubs turn out athletes in great shape, but they are performing a routine and often have a hard time transitioning to a more “goshin” style mentality when needed or perform as if they are doing sport karate and fail to defend themselves. Much like a boxer striking without hand pads and gloves the first time a Karate player throws a technique to defend themselves they are left realizing they have holes in their training.

 

                One of my biggest beefs with Sport Karate (WKF style or multi style events) is the Genericafication of the systems that they are practicing. It is impossible to participate in a Multi style event and maintain your traditional presentation. I have seen Shotokan people doing Goju Kata to score extra points when they feel that the judges are all Naha based practitioners at heart. This feeling of structural fluidity takes away from the strict style system that has been a traditional pride point. Also the over exaggerated Kata performance that the multi style events encourage takes away from the structure of the traditional Katas.

 

                This is not even mentioning that the traditional tournaments are much safer as the students are focused on controlled use of waza while the sport participant is taught to score points with dynamic and dangerous waza.

 

                While I am obviously in favor of the traditional tournament, I believe that some value exists in the training for events. I myself do conditioning and encourage my students ( I do it in class) to do conditioning such as TABATA drills and such. However I believe that the dangerous practice of “Tip tap” Tournament techniques and lack of control is a major detriment to the student and any dojo that uses this training as a focus. While it is exciting to watch often, and ignoring my obvious traditional slant, I think that the athletes are very competent, any Dojo that takes on the more dangerous training is asking for trouble. Injuries will begin to mount and one major accident could cause you to lose your club!

               

                In place of the more dangerous Multi Style sport Karate a Dojo should instead adopt conditioning that intelligently builds up fitness and ability in a student while spending 75% of the time on control and technical proficiency over explosive and dangerous sport training. One must find the balance between intelligent training and conditioning in the Dojo.

 

 

 

 

 

Karate Poison!

Karate Poison!

                I have been doing Karate for a long time, 37 years! And for 20 of those years I was HARD CORE, we are talking 7 days a week at points, 2-3 classes a day!  I was so submerged in Karate that my whole thought process was about Karate. I was lucky, I had a great instructor who taught me a lot about the way Karate should be done. He was someone that took great pride in doing the right thing all the time, even if it was not the right thing for him politically or financially.

                Now Sensei was not perfect but he recognized that in order to teach Karate you had to have personal standards. You had to present yourself as above the issues and you had to recognize the poison that affects Karate. There are many poisons that affect Karate in general and ones that seem to be flourishing. Most of them are a reflection of our society and normal human nature. However some are more specific to Karate. Here are my basic 8 poisons of Karate.

 

Politics

                Politics are the poison of all things really. I know they are essential in running an organization, which I will get to in a bit, but they also create tension and issues that would be slightly less pervasive if not for the politics of Karate.

                Karate should be a dictator ship, a Sensei at the top of the food chain (Dojo) and then everyone who follows him. It’s the best set up for a Karate Dojo. Then you look at organizations and you should have the same set up, a president and a bunch of worker bees’ however what ends up happening is in fighting, Cliques are formed, power is seen as up for grabs if only you play the game. It’s sad!

                Politics need to be kept out of the Dojo and organizations should run like a company! One head guy and the rest follow orders and move to improve the group over all without working to gain things for themselves. Too bad with politics comes corruption and that is bad news for students, the clubs and the organizations that suffer from this poison.

 

Rank Grabbing

                Along the same lines as political power grabs are rank grabs.  I have known many people who Organization surfed to get further ranking. They hit a glass ceiling in one group and jump to another to get another notch on their belt. Honestly I don’t honor any rank over 5^th Dan for technical knowledge anyways, and 6^th Dan for political “Gifting” of a rank.  I know far to many 9^th Dans who are not worth a pillar of salt and a few 5^th and 6^th Dans who are complete idiots.

                Rank is “Rank” as I often say. Once you get a black belt and have mastered the basics you are now studying the innards of Karate and working towards a better understanding of its inner workings how it applies to your body. Nidan is the fighting rank, you should be able to do fairly decent Kumite and Sandan for me is the pulling together of the whole thing. 4^th, 5^th and even 6^th dan are mainly teaching ranks that show you understand the system you are teaching well. Anything above that is just political.

                I know far to many people who train to get rank, its sad really because they miss the whole point of it. Kyu level I grant don’t know better and honestly the ranking at that level is understandably all about Waza improvement. But after 6^th Dan, well its just political gifting or self-gratification.  Focusing on rank and letting the obsession take over your life is a second poison of Karate.

 

Organizations

                Organizations in Karate should serve the students. They should work to develop extra training options, bring in instructors for variety, create tournament training options and help organize students grading. They legitimize ranks when possible and they focus on keeping the technical level higher.

                However, most Organizations FAIL in this horribly, especially the first part. The organizations tend to change and become about ego for the leadership, power grabs and they fail to recognize that this is all about the student base….not the leadership. Organizations are best made up of Dojos that run independent of each other and work together to build up training, the leadership made up of equal votes from each club…..each club being a dictator ship. OR they should be all run by one leader who makes all the decisions based on what is best for his organization….however both are flawed and over time I have found that organizations end up becoming a big disappointment and fail the membership horribly.

                I have been a member of FEW organizations that were not Poison! The organizations that I was part of that were not totally poisonous were led by strong leaders who did not goof around trying to maintain power, they just led and crated good training. They however are few and far between. To many leaders are self-conscious and paranoid about losing power. They lack integrity and they often are power mongers. The few I know who are not, lead smaller groups that just want to train.

 

Racism and sexism and worse.

                This one is not as prevalent in most Karate groups, but it’s out in the universe of Karate groups, as is sexism. Thankfully I have never really been the target of racism in Karate, which as a short white guy sounds funny but it’s a reality for some. I have seen Japanese instructors pass members up for positions and rank because a Asian was up for the same position, or a the person ranking was a lady and how could she get a rank that a guy had.

                I have of course also trained under Japanese masters like Saeki Sensei who shows NO prevalence towards these types of behaviors and is one of the most fair people I have ever met. However I have seen some leaders and instructors mistreat people, I have been told by a few female Karate-ka that they were sexually harassed and I have seen people behaving badly when it comes to kids and people of other back grounds.

                To me this is a perfect example of not understanding respect. As an instructor or senior we must show great respect to our students. Granted they must return the favors but I am a big advocate for first respecting them. This means give the respect that is owed before you expect it back. The lack of respect, racism, sexism and ego issues area chronic poison in Karate.

 

Long distance training

                This one will seem strange, but it will make sense to you in a second or two. I see a trend happening that seems to be a mix of changing organizations to get ranking and seeking to train under famous instructors…when you live literally a world apart. I have seen this manifest several ways. The first is someone applies to a group that has no one in their area, they get approved and then they train less than 2 times a year with someone from far away…..if ever. This to me is a waste of time and energy, if you want to be part of a “Named” Group then simply make a name for yourself, its sad when you join group “ABC org” just to put that on a fancy patch.

                The other manifestation of this is distance grading/learning. This is a new “Technology” based push that has come about in the last few years. I have seen people grade for Shodan, Nidan and Sandan by sending in video of them doing the syllabus for the group. Its kind of sad. They get rank and never meet the person that supposedly ranked them.

                Honestly it makes me feel that instructors need to shake their heads a bit more. The traditional ranking system was an instructor teaching and giving out rank based on the interactions of the instructor with the student. They did not grade anyone they did not personally know and train with let alone give a black belt ranking out to someone they did not personally know. It’s a sign of the disintegration of the meaning of rank when you see this.  I know of one person who received their Dan ranking by attending one camp then sending in a video of themselves doing Kata and some basics. They think that this is legit but in most of our eyes the person is a brown belt that got taken for a ride.

                I don’t think you need to train every day with an instructor but you should know the person and have trained with them a few times before they give you rank. I also know that the JKA sends out rank instructors to provide ranking to people. The truth is your local instructor goes to bat for you during these and says if you should or should not pass. It’s not JUST the instructor who is giving you rank. And honestly that is fine with me.

                The new trend of Long distance training removes the personal attention an instructor gives and makes the whole process about one desperate person looking for help…and the other looking to pad their bank account. Its poison alright.

 

Karate for sport

                Karate was not created to be a sport, while it can be changed and altered to be a sport it loses its soul when this is done. Yes you can have Karate tournaments that challenge students, give them something to focus on and helps them get hyped up for training. But the modern trend in Karate is to do tag matches that make you work to 5-11 points. This means, by the old interpretation…you must deliver 5-11 perfect “Killing blows” to an opponent with perfect control.  So….we need to kill them 5 or more times…..last I saw if someone dies they don’t come back…we are not cats! I partially kid.

The fact however is Sport Karate has sucked the very soul out of most of the students training. They are taught a very dangerous form of tag that instructors sell them to make them day dream about being in the Olympics or some such crapola. The facts….and I do mean FACTS are that 99% of people walking in the Dojo will NOT get to the Olympics…and 98% of them won’t get to an international tournament and compete….maybe 95% won’t make it to nationals and that’s just the facts.

I call this sales pitch the “Tiger woods” sales approach. An instructor waives the “Carrot” in the face of students saying that they “could” be Olympians if they train hard and they pay a lot of money for that…travel and participate in special training. This “Marketing model” often pays off and gets students in the door. Back when Woods was the guy to be it brought THOUSANDS of kids to golf, a sport normally reserved for retired older business men then saw a boom in participation…but at the end of the day 99.9999% of those kids forced to wear golf clothing and swing at the round white ball on countless driving ranges with overpriced golf clubs and then taking expensive personal training and coaching….ended up NOT being the next “Tiger Woods” and it was a harsh wake up call.

Karate sport is going to be the same thing. First off it’s NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.. your students will NOT be Olympians. I never really billed Karate as OLYMPIC sport to market my club, why…because it’s a pipe dream! WKF style Karate has three things working against it. First off its PURE SPORT which is not what most students are looking for. Secondly it’s a limited time training process. This means when you age out or get hurt and cannot train any longer or just simply give up on the fake ideal of being and Olympian…well you are done with training…and that’s a shame. Secondly its intrinsically more dangerous than traditional training because it’s a TIP TAP game of tag that includes uncontrolled and covered limbs that will lead to injury.

The local organizations are going to vie for the 1-2 spots that the National Team have, and most will be given away already. Secondly you are not just competing with your own system of Karate…you are competing with Wado, Goju, Shotokan, Shorin, Shito ryu, Uechi ryu and those that are Tae Kwon Do athletes that spar at a high level. The fact is that the whole WKF is skewed towards the Shito ryu athletes as they make up the hierarchy of the WKF these days. If you belong to a traditional Karate group your athletes will have to abandon the traditional roots and style to become WKF “skilled” For Kata and they have to change their training and adapt to it.

It’s not just WKF, it’s any system that promotes sport over traditional training is taking the soul out of Karate and changing the intent of training.  For this I state that sport Karate training is a poison in Karate. Now, traditional tournaments and those that put emphasis on the true spirit of Karate are not, actually the opposite. Traditional focused tournaments reinforce Budo training and the true ideals of Karate training. That goes for ANY Style of Karate!

 

 

The Genericise of Karate

                This has been something that I have disliked from the start of the Sport Karate movement, and its something that haunts me when I see people slipping over to training in WKF or other sport Karate. The intrinsic components that make each style of Karate unique also give them their character. I am a Shotokan student/instructor who loves what makes my training Shotokan. However I also like watching really good Goju Ryu style Kata and The flowing movements of Wado ryu and the hard Kung fu system that is Uechi Ryu. Each movement, each interpretation of movement skills and each dynamic that makes the Kata and functionality uniquely that of the style it comes from is interesting to me.

                However the recent trend is to shave these differences away and create a generic system that is meant to meld with what other practitioners are expected to do. A Shotokan person who does traditional Kumite and Kata according to the traditional training now must “Adjust” their Kumite style, work on multiple points and abandon the syllabus and style of Kata to now fit the new system that sees Shito, Goju and others abandon their syllabus and style to also be able to compete against other styles.

                Back in “the Day” when a Goju person did Kumite against a Shotokan person or a Shito Ryu black belt sparred against a Wado Ryu person (Ext) you could tell what system they came from based on their style in Kumite. Also students used Kata to learn, they learned them in-depth and the “performance” was meant to show their own style of training. Now the Katas are all changed to be more athletic, the timing is altered to make them more exciting to perform….who cares if the timing is done now in a way that makes the application of technique questionable at best.

                This is Genericise of Karate, the removal of years of traditional systems and styles to allow them to be used to compete against other systems. This removal of tradition is then give merit by creating a organization to support it, and rank provided by people who directly advocate for the watering down of the systems that make up the organization. It’s a case of the organization creating a system to train in, and not a system of training generating an organization to lead it.

                The poison that is Genericise of Karate is actually  a poison for all systems of Karate. The art of Karate, its many beautiful branches, was never meant to be a single unit. It was never meant to be an Olympic singular sport like boxing, Tae Kwon Do or Judo. It’s a plethora of personal systems, of traditions that should not be disrespected by Genericise.

 

Modernization of Karate

                Modernization of Karate is another similar issue and cancer that we face today in Karate. It’s often presented as Genericise but because it’s often a single system that is “Modernizing” it is different enough to warrant its own comment. Modernization is when a system or club moves to remove the traditional base of a system.  They often present this as “Evolution” or “revolution” of a system, it’s basically a pasteurization presented by people that have not been able to see the value of tradition.

                Modernizing Karate is like saying you will take a painting by a famous 18^th Century artist and rework it on the computer, redraw it and print it out on the computer. You will take away the classic lines, the paint strokes, the aged skills of the artist and replace it with a computers fine lines, and measured presentation. You are sucking the soul out of the system and giving it new names, new approaches and often the system is basically the same…just watered down horribly.

                Karate is a traditional system, it’s not exactly “Ancient” but it’s not modern. It has a soul to it that you should not be removing to “market” it to ignorance and people seeking newness in a system that is old. It normally boils down to a new marketing approach by people that don’t value the traditions of the system….and often they are not smart enough or trained enough to understand that the system they teach…is almost identical to the one they say they “modernized from”. 

                There are three kinds of “Modernization” of Karate. One is the Genericise of Karate we spoke of previously. The other is the lip service to evolution that we see from people who don’t understand that Karate should remain close to the original form. They disrespect the teachings they underwent and they just want the money that is they can gain. The last is the “creationist” systems that are basically made up systems.  These ones are so weak and take away the legitimacy from traditional system. I think of a system that was made up by a soldier returning from WWII when he had seen classes or read about them but never studied. He purchased a gi and black belt and created a strange system he named. This is a modern system that fails in every category, but he stuck with it and it eventually became “Legit”.  All of these are poisons and should be avoided.

 

McDojo’s

                The last poison that I see is the McDojo. The Urban dictionary defines a Mc Dojo as having one or more of the following things:

1. The Black belts have not reached puberty yet and you can rent out the Dojo for birthday parties.
2. Your instructor tries to flirt with your girlfriend when she attempts to visit you at the club.
3. Your instructor is having an affair with one of his students.
4. Your instructor gives speaches during class about how TKD is superior to all other martial arts (assuming you are in a TKD club).
5. Your instructor won’t allow you to compete in a tournament because his techniques are too deadly and you would actually kill or seriously injure anyone you competed against.
6. You attend a Chinese kung fu school that used Japanese belt ranking systems.
7. You attend a Hapkido school but all the grappling elements have been eliminated from training.
8. Your instructor places and embargo on his students equipment purchases. You will be reprimanded for bringing in gear and gis purchased outside the Dojo.
9. While sparring your instructor complains that you’re not being aggressive enough, then when you be more more aggressive your instructor tells you to stop being aggressive.
10. Your instructor names his style after himself. For example Jo Son do, Dux Ryu, Rex Kwon Do.

 

Now, this is by no means a complete list. Nor do they mean if you see one of these things in your club that the whole club is a McDojo. It is a good indicator however that you have some foolish things going on in your club. For starters a good Dojo can become a McDojo if it crosses over from a passion to a job for the instructor and they start looking for things to bring in the general public and care little for tradition.

My issue with McDojos is that they take the legitimacy that we have with the public away. We end up failing and falling short with the public and we end up doing more damage to an often weaker view that the general public has of us. Our focus should be on building up the art of Karate not making it a mockery. This is a poison for sure.

 

 

Not all the things wrong with Karate are obvious, and not all the things that we view as bad are poisons, they may just be things that irk us. But we need to know that there are things out there that are bad for us, even if we see them as good in the short run. We need to guard against these practices and focus on the students we are passing Karate onto. Our job as instructors is to pass on Karate to the best of our ability to our students to they can maintain the traditions we were taught.