I was watching a few of my students the other
day warming up doing Heian Yondan, I stopped them and corrected them and they
went and worked on the Kata for a bit then started on Heian Godan, that was as
far as they got…Heian Shodan to Godan. I was super proud of them…they were
Black belts after all and knew that they needed solid foundations and training
to move up to more advanced Kata. They were doing Jion and Jutte as Tokui kata
but they did not ignore the lower Kata, in fact they gave them even more
training than their training Katas. Once they get the skills polished up a bit
and we start class we always start class with Sonobu and Ido Kihon waza to
remind people that basics and basic skills are what propel you into senior
level training and allow you to do these skills properly.
Karate skills are like the
progress between crawling and sprinting; first you crawl, then stand, then
walk, then run, then sprint! You cannot really jump a skill set and successfully
progress without missing key components of the skills. I never teach Mawashi
Geri before I teach Mae geri, Mae Geri being the key primary kicking skill that
you should be taught. Actually I am very focused on reworking, working then
working some more, and finally reworking base skills before I ever think about
moving to a more advanced skill. It’s the basis for a solid Kihon-centric
system. This is why the rank system was
set up after all. I don’t dispute that some people want to jump into more
advanced training and even enjoy it, even if they cannot do them very well or
end up with sloppy Kihon, but it’s not proper to train a junior in senior level
skills.
I
have also seen the opposite thought process however and it illustrated to me
that I was DEAD RIGHT. I was watching a class of mostly junior brown belts and
Black belts warm up at a Dojo I was asked to teach at a bit ago and saw they
were all working on Kanku Sho. All of them! The problem was that the Black
belts did not have a solid foundation in Kihon and had not put in their time in
the junior Kata, never mind the intermediate Kanku Dai and others, and they
jumped right into the advanced form. It was horrible! I had to do everything in
my power to not stop them and tell them to not do that Kata and work on their
weak points in the foundation. The issue was obvious, they were exceeding their
grasp because they did not give themselves time to focus on the junior Katas
and work their way up the TECHNICAL SCALE to be able to actually perform a Kata
like this and do it any justice!
I
remember in the 90’s going to a kickboxing class with a buddy of mine, I was
already a 1st Kyu and was looking for some fun training to do. The
class warmed up jumping rope then some light stretching. I stuck out because I
was very flexible and kind of had the basic drills down because of hours of
Karate training, I knew a round house kick and a side kick from a front kick,
even if they did them all a bit different. What struck me however was how 90%
of the class had no basic training and at the end of the first ½ hour we “gloved
up” and started hitting each other…..no basic sparring or gentle elevation from
basics to drills…nope, right to hitting each other in a free sparring system of
training. In a ½ hour class I saw about 3 bad injuries and probably 7 future bruises
that were mostly self-inflicted. The instructor kind of shrugged it off like “Its
kickboxing what did you expect”. Back then we used to make fun of the kick
boxers for having little skills other than hitting each other with bad form, my
Sempais went as far as entering the first “all styles” Kumite events and
winning each division then saying it was not fair….we had actual training. Now
we are trading in the mind set of basics first for flash first. It’s hurting our art a great deal!
Like
I said, we have a ranking system for a reason, we progress from white belt to
Black belt and from 10th Kyu to Dan level for a reason, and we don’t
let people jump ranks for any reason. You can be super athletic and still have
to learn basics and polish the fundamentals before you get your next belt. When
I teach I see members as fitting into one of three categories; Basic,
Intermediate and advanced. I also train each level a bit different and focus on
different skill sets for each level. It’s not just about time in and it’s not
just about what color belt you have, it’s about how well you have progressed.
10th to 6th
Kyu level belts should be focused on the VERY Basic levels of Kihon and Kata
and having fun with some 5 step sparring to work the basics. This is what I call the basic level student. They
need the time to develop movement patterns that will create the foundation or
fundamentals of their Karate but instructors are scared to lose members to kick
boxing classes who will get them hitting pads and bags and pile on foam
protection so they can pound on each other! Let them, if the student does not understand
that Karate is not about instant gratification…they should not be students.
5th to 1st
Kyu level students are intermediate students in my books. That’s normally purple
to Brown belt levels. They should be working on skills that will help them
become solid black belts. Focus on katas that will help build up stronger
movement skills, develop Kumite reflexes with 1 step and then semi free
sparring and work on more advanced Kihon, but the addition of a few extra more
advanced things to play with is fine. But you should be keeping them working
hard on skills and training that are in the realm of skill development, when
you drop them into Kanku Sho or free sparring you are dropping them into a
skill training program that is set up for people WHO ALREADY HAVE SKILLS TO
HANDLE THIS. It’s not “Fun” to do these advanced skills if they SUCK at them
and they lose skill because of it. It’s a detriment to their training!
1st Dan and 2nd
Dan are about development of advanced skills like Kumite and the rest of the 15
Kata. This is the level you can have some fun with advanced training once
people have the physical ability and the mental ability to train coming
together at this skill level. However I must say that these ranks are ranks I
am pointing out those who are TRULY at this rank, not those that did sport
Karate and are doing advanced training as a purple belt. Honestly there are far
too many black belts training who don’t have the proper skill sets because
their foundation is CRAP!
When
you are training, as a rule, there is a “pyramid” of progressive importance
that each club has in their training. Sometimes its discussed and well thought
out and other times it’s just something you note and you can observe based on
the classes set up. In my club the pyramid starts with a wide base of Kihon. We
do Kihon every class and we focus on improved movement skills but the focus is
on the basic mechanism of execution of the movement. We drill on proper
mechanics, impact site on the weapon, targeting, proper body alignment and
balance and other aspects of the movements, but we do them A LOT and drills in
basics can take up an entire class.
Next
in our pyramid is Kata. Kata is always done in class to end the class, if not
as a focus. We do our ranking Kata and sometimes will address a senior level
Kata. Honestly it takes a great deal of time to work on grading Kata so even if
we are “focusing on Empi this month” we probably will work 1 week end out of 4
on it, and the week day training we will work on grading Kata only. Kata is the
application of Kihon, but you start to see the breakdown of form and
functionality from Kihon to Kata at this point and it needs to be focused on. This is also were I normally see students
beginning to reach farther than they can grasp. They begin going away from the
basics training of Kihon and doing advanced Kata that they don’t understand as
they are not mentally their yet. And the spiral begins to grow.
The
Second from top part of our training pyramid at the Nintai club is Kumite. We
try and have fun with it as often as possible but I can recall weeks that we
did not do any Kumite and longer stints in which we did no free style, granted
as of late we have really focused on this as a training component but mostly we
see it as the end result of hard work, not a goal. Our students should be
learning the basics and working up the Kumite skill ladder working with 3/5
step then 1 step then semi free and finally playing with free style a bit….not
jumping into free style and dropping all the skills they worked so hard to acquire.
The
top of our pyramid is conditioning, which I am a bit embarrassed about, we
should be doing more stretching and conditioning but honestly I tend to leave
that to the students. Its something I am trying to correct.
The
point being is that working a class structure that omits the key components of
the solid pyramid system does not make sense for longevity of a student, nor
for the success of a student. It’s a given fact that you require solid Kihon to
be able to perform Kata, and you have to train in Kata to understand the
essence and structure of a form as well as internalizing the form itself to
perform the form with any kind of success. Also, if you want to be good at
Kumite you must first be good at the tools you are using to engage in Kumite,
then you work on skills like distance and timing and work on explosiveness ext.
You cannot skip the Kihon to get to the tasty bits that Kumite offer or you
will look like a flopping fish when it comes time to engage in actual Kumite.
Students
today almost reflexively reach beyond their grasp and want things that they
should be made to wait for. They need to be pushed to train the details and
build solid Kihon so that it’s a reflex to throw a good technique, the goal
being that if they are attacked they don’t think, they react to the situation
based on good form and experience using the waza.
You
want further proof of this ideology and its effect on training. Look at the
champions of WKF Karate, watch them do their Katas with poor Kokutsu dachi and
a focus on splashy, fancy moves, loud screaming and a shock factor that they
try and put into their training, they push to excite with athletics with little
actual substance. Then go watch Osaka sensei, his perfect form and execution is
awe inspiring. Why is there such a vast difference, well Osaka Sensei trained
with Nakayama Sensei who drilled Kihon over and over again so the students
understood Kata, and he studied the Heian Katas till he had them down! He was there
to shock you with perfect form and not just athletic ability. The difference is often striking, when you
consider that you are looking at two different world champions and both are
said to be “the best”. For my money, I
want my students to be as good as Osaka Sensei, not fancy and dramatic like the
new age Kata champs.
As
instructors we are tasked with teaching good Karate, I for one will always work
my students Kihon and think long term for them, not immediate gratification
that helps them participate in sport. I want to be clear that Traditional
Karate has a sporting component with tournament participation, however the
outcome and ideals of the training. The focus is on good form and the Kumite focuses
on the ideal of one punch one kill. This means you don’t compete for “points”
but perfection of form and application of the functionality of the waza…..or if
you used it for real…would you “finish” the fight. This is completely different
from the current sport ideal of tag for points.
Students
should be focused on building up solid basics, they should not be in a rush to
jump into sport style training. When they do the results is the WKF style sport
karate that is fancy, quick paced and explosive…but very sloppy and an activity
that becomes something other than true Karate. We need to teach students to
keep the course, not reach further than they can grasp and to focus on what is
important….Training to learn and grow, not to show off and get ranks that don’t
reflect their true understanding of Karate.
