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.