People
take up the martial arts for many different reasons, most of the time it has to
do with fitness, recreation, wanting to be Bruce Lee….or whom ever the current
trend is. The reasons very but the
styles of training you find in different clubs tend to dictate who sticks
around. If your club for instance is super into competitions and you just want
to destress after a hard day of working…you wont stick around. Conversely, if
your instructor is into basics and making your Karate sharp and uses a curriculum-based program to try and get you to grade and rank often….but you want to do
the kind of Karate that will earn you medals not belts…you will hit that door
fast! Not all dojos can be everything to everyone! Some focus on Kids classes
(on purpose or just organically) some are home to beasts that like to smash the
new guys and its like training in a grinder daily. In other words, you may have
to search around for the right home for yourself or your kids/family.
Don’t be scared to try a few
classes, dip your toes in and figure out if this is for you or not, and if
not…don’t give up…look to other clubs to find the perfect fit. About the only
thing I can guarantee you is that the instructor WILL tell you that their club
is the perfect one for you…and they will be right about 25% of the time…..but
they will insist it to you 110% of the time!
Each club will have a specific
feel based on the lead instructor and their focus. Even if they try and split
away different classes into “Team training” and “Dojo training” or
“conditioning classes” and “Syllabus training” they will inevitably teach one
specific way or focus on just a few specific styles of training. You wont get a
Dojo that focuses on 5 different training styles and is successful at them.
Even good instructors will “give away” classes for different focuses like Kids
classes to focus on the core training they are doing in class.
Each style of training includes
different aspects that may or may not be in the other systems. Trianing for conditioning may actually have a
few things in common with training for sport/tournaments and family Karate may
look a lot like Syllabus or Dojo training, but they are unique and they often
have systems that they are dynamically opposed to. Kids training instructors probably wont do
very good in teaching a Sport/Tournament style of program and those that focus
on Health training probably wont do well systems focused on conditioning…I will
explain!
The most common kind of Karate
program is what I call Dojo or Traditional Karate. Its super old school
and you will do lots of Kihon, basic Kumite and a solid focus on Kata. The
system is not fancy and it uses old school conditioning (think Push ups, sit
ups and Makiwara training) with the focus on hardening your body for more Dojo training.
The focus is no not being fancy, working towards solid waza in each thing and
while it may look a lot like Syllabus training but it allows for a lot more
personal freedom and expression in training and application. This is the kind
of training in which Jiyu Ippon and Jiyu kumite really starts to show your
personality when you do the sparring. The Kata training is super traditional
but also has room for personal expression.
Dojo Training works well
into syllabus training and can even cross over into sport or other systems, but
the no BS style of training does not mix or convert well into the esoteric
training or less focussed training like health training. Most people who are
really into Dojo training also find Family training and fitness training dull
and unfocused.
The people who like the Dojo
training system enjoy systemic, focused, structured and challenging
training that builds spirit and focuses on the minute details while also
encouraging your creativity while pushing you to improve all the times and
drive your training to build spirit.
Almost the polar opposite to
Dojo training is Sport/Tournament Karate style training. This training
is not easy, I don’t want to let my bias against this training really affect my
telling of what the system is because it does have its place. This is the
system of training that focuses on preparation for competition. Its more
dynamic, flashy and holds the belief that the ends direct the means! The focus
is not on the minutia of the training, the fine details of each movement, the
finer points of power creation, the kinematics and dynamics of each move….its
about building better athletes, making them faster, stronger and more explosive
so they can improve towards earning medals and trophies. When people ask me the
different between the Sport/Tournament training and Dojo Training I point out
that the style of Kumite and Kata are very different.
Tournament Kumite is
bouncy, it follows a sort of “who tagged who” approach and the use of Kime is
non-existant. A Dojo Kumite focus however is strict, focused and you hold your
techniques out longer at the end of an attack. So by way of example a
Tournament match the attacker is bouncing in and out, up and down…then you
rush/jump in and then throw a fast snappy punch that recoils upon impact. The
attacker is relaxed, snappy and explosive, the Dojo kumite fighter shifts in
and out, maintaining the same level (Even sinking a bit more) then rockets
forwards with a sharp powerful punch and upon execution the punch is held out
with complete contraction of the core muscles and arm muscles pushing the leg
into the ground with a solid, loud Kiai!
I am going to say ……for the record….both styles are goo and have their
merit, Im just not a bouncy kind of guy…but I can teach it!
Tournament Kata is very
VERY Much different than your other Kata training. The focus is not so much on
proper form, timing and traditional Waza use…it encourages more dramatic
movements, over extension, larger scale and exaggerated moves. The theatrical
nature of the Kata often grinds on us traditionalists, but some love the long
Kiai’s the Sensationalization of the Kata and the melodrama that is on display.
The ironic part is that Tournament Kata tends to throw away the stoic display
that traditionalists value the most, and in doing so they tend to draw more
crowds and interest in watching the Kata display than traditional Kata has.
People drawn to Tournament/sport
Karate styles tend to enjoy athletic training, they are performers…the way
people like being dancers on stage or actors in plays. The training is varied,
modern and dynamic, coaching is geared towards building up students as
individuals and rank tends to be secondary. I have seen purple belts doing Unsu
in tournaments because physically they can perform the movements with flair and
dynamic movement, they have no idea what they are doing but they do it well!
Traditional Dojo people
and syllabus training styles do NOT do well with the sport/
Tournament style training normally. Its hard to convert from a very strict
and stylized system to a loose and more dynamic and dramatic style. The focus
of the training tends to make this great for younger students, but as you pass
the age of competition participation the usefulness of this kind of training
tends to be limited. Those that focus completely on Tournament style
training will have to transition to one of the other systems of training as you
progress out of this training style.
The next two systems are sort of
bunched together because they tend to have similar focuses, even if they are
very different. First off they are both not “hard core” training but focus more
on a bit of fitness, a bit of fun training and dabble in some traditional
training. These two styles are Kids Training and Family Training. The
kids training programs are often seen as “play time” with some basic Karate
training mixed in. The kids style training looks Chaotic, confused and
spastic. Kids are found running around, playing with balls, kicking bags….each
other and often they are focused on doing about 10% karate and 90% controlling
them with fun drills. This is NOT to say that its not beneficial and does not
teach Karate, its just not the main focus of the training. Family Karate
is a bit more focused, it’s a bit more traditional and a whole lot less
chaotic. Family Karate tends to focus on Kihon and traditional style training,
but with out the “Hard core” aspect that traditional Dojo training tends to
have.
Family Karate is great
for people who want to train in Karate, get the fitness benefits, learn a bit
of defense and set and reach goals. I normally call this the “feel good” style
of training. This training incorporates most of the elements of Dojo training
but it does not focus as much on the strict systemic implementation of the
training system like the Dojo training does. The Family and Kids training
program are often where people who transition into Dojo or Sport training
start from. These types of training are great because they allow you to train
twice a week or around that amount of commitment and get the expected benefits
from training. I like Family Karate because of the accessibility and the
Kids Karate recruits’ kids to training who may not have trained in Karate, but
it should be seen as a jump off point for more serious training. The Family
Karate and Kids Karate, ironically, have become the mainstay of most Karate
programs serving to act as a way of generating revenue and paying the rent. I
like Family Karate because its FUN and I enjoy teaching it because we can have
fun, I can joke a bit and its much less me playing military drill sergeant than
Dojo or Traditional training is for me. I can also introduce more drills
and improvements from Traditional style training, but with a focus on it being
fun over building in hard core training elements to the training. I am not,
however, not a fan of Kids Karate….I don’t enjoy the sheer chaos and I
am not a fan of the circus that normally comes with this kind of training. This
is not to say I don’t see its value, I do…its just not something I am
particularly good at.
The Next kind of training system
is the Syllabus Training style. Its often seen as being “Traditional or
Dojo Training” like, and while the Traditional system is based on the Syllabus
system of training the Dojo training allows for a lot more fluidity,
creativity and self style training. An example of this would be one I saw last
night in training. For Jiyu Ippon/Ippon training the syllabus training style
dictates you must start your attacks with left side forwards, meaning you
always do right side attacks. Or….all attacks start off as Hidari Gedan barai
Zenkutsu Dachi and then launch into the attack, The Dojo Training
however you often are given the option to attack from your strong side (Meaning
you could do Migi Gedan Barai Zenkutsu as a starting point or both). Also, Kata
for Syllabus is not open to personal interpretation, its specific and
its based on what the organization stipulates. Bassai Dai’s Yoko geri target is
the knee, but in the Dojo I have seen people aim lower, aim at the ribs and
even the hip.
Syllabus training is
focused on rank advancement, on creating standards in everything and
maintaining a specific structure and style of an organization. Its about
passing on specific information to students and ensuring that they are
following the style specifically. Syllabus training merges well with Traditional
Karate/Dojo Karate and Family Training but does not play well with Sport
Karate as it’s the dynamic opposite of the free feeling mentality of the
sporty training. Syllabus training however is essential in not only passing
on specific ideas but in making sure that the training sticks to the same
framework that the organization is set on.
Less focused training like Fitness
Karate and Health Karate come in next. The fitness training
is more about conditioning Karate and you see a lot of things like “Free
training” and auxiliary training like jump rope and pad training. This kind of
work out is more the interpretation of the instructor who is trying to draw in
people who want to get in good shape and use Karate like a Boxercise training
program. The Fitness based Karate workouts do not see rank advancement as a
goal, they don’t focus on the perfection of a specific technique or sport
training. The work outs are challenging and will get your body in great shape,
but your skills and technical development will take a back seat. The Health
training is more about using Karate to improve your health. Stretching
based, using Kata as a way of replacing Jogging and improving your stress
management. Its about getting in a good workout to help your over all health.
People who are into fitness and
health will want to find a dojo that focuses more on these things than
technical improvement or tournament participation and are a more serious about
training than Family training. The Fitness training
and Health training also tend to bring in an older demographic,
meaning adults mostly. The focus is on weight loss, fitness and general health
improvement in an environment that focuses on serious training time, but not
Hard core. Much
like the Family Karate style I totally approve of this kind of
Karate to get people in the door, have classes focused only on Adult or older
teen/adult training but it should be used to transition people to Dojo
Training or as a component of weekly training, but it should not be the
focus of students.
I
have seen the Karate world go Ga Ga over things like Tae Bo training and
Karate-box style work outs and some clubs incorporate kick boxing classes to
draw on new membership. I don’t discourage this or think its bad, I just think
that you could use Karate training for many things and totally transitioning to
a Thai style clothing and weak kickboxing based training (most instructors in
these classes watch a video after getting a shodan and alter the classes to be
more kickboxing-ish).
The next system is a bit less
prevalent in real Karate training programs but I have seen lots of them in
other martial arts and clubs that “transition from Traditional and Health
courses” into this system of training, and it often comes from instructors that
have mental issues or who are basically looking for ways to earn money and who
are not very gifted coaches or instructors. It’s the Esoteric system
of Karate training. This system, to be totally upfront and honest…is JUNK and
garbage! I have only seen a few clubs that teeter on the brink of Esoteric
training styles. My favorite example of this is the no touch knock out
group! I have also been told bout a Tai Chi Club that ended up degrading from
actual Tai Chi Training to essentially getting thrown into a dark room with a strobe
light and told to spar their way out using CHI energy. Any instructors that
talk a lot about energy over science or mystical abilities over technical
proficiency is going to be Esoteric in nature.
Now having said that I have
trained with some very spiritual and traditional minded instructors who mention
Chi and such but teach things in a very technical way. The fact that an
instructor focuses on some Esoteric stuff is not a deal breaker, but if they
focus ONLY on mystical powers that they have and can teach you….Run!
In the 80’s, for some unfreeable
reason, some of the Karate clubs that I used to attend shifted their training
from traditional based training to a Defense or Self Defense
focused club. Now Traditional Dojo training will prepare you for the
need to protect you, but some clubs went all Krav Maga for their search of
students. This style of training is a component of the training in most clubs,
but some focus so much on the applications of Kata and center their training on
this that they fail to grow in other areas, also they “invent” things so much
that the original intent is lost.
I know of a few instructors that
focus so much on Bunkai that their whole training is based on doing drills and
taking parts of the Kata to teach defense. The courses they teach are really
interesting but they fail to work on improved waza, they don’t advocate free
fighting at all and they have basically created a new system or style out of
the idea of the application. The study of Kata becomes the whole training focus for
them, which is best supposed to only be part of training!
Bunkai based or Defense style
training appeals to a lot of people, mostly people looking for answers in the
Katas. This does not bother me at all till you run into the “overly creative”
ones who insist on making up Bunkai that makes no sense or worse, are not even
close to the movements in the kata. If you need to alter a waza or insert extra
moves/remove techniques to make their hypothesis work! Bunkai for each move in
a Kata should be limited to 1-2 applications, you can do countless
interpretations and only find out that you have been wasting your time because
the rest is a waste of time!
When Karate first hit Okinawa
the art of Kata study took about three years per Kata, this gave them lots of
time to study the in and out of each move, but with 3 months between Kata and
more as a black belt…you should focus on understanding the moves with a
somewhat more limited scope of Bunkai, and make sure…it works.
The next, and last kind of
system you may run into is the Hybrid training program. This is not when
a instructor teaches sport and Dojo or Traditional and self defense training.
This is when a Karate instructor teaches a mix of Aikido and Karate or Kali and
Karate or BJJ and Karate. The idea being that you are taking on a style of
Karate and adding a different system completely. Some Hybrid systems
include a mixing of Goju ryu and Shotokan or Uechi Ryu and Kyokushin (weird but
I have seen it). The two merging together to make a rough and often disjointed
system.
The problem with Hybrid systems
is that the standards and focus often gets very messy. You end up learning two
different systems not one smooth and functional system. My favorite was a Shito
ryu instructor who taught Judo as well. The training was something like “when
you stand up do this…when you are wanting to go to the ground do this”. And
both were pure systems of training, just done both in one club. My grandfather
used to say that you can not serve two masters and you can be a student of many
or a master of one. The problem with Hybrid training is that it becomes
exactly this kind of situation.
The Sales of these systems is
reliant on a few things, much like the esoteric training programs they often
over promise and under deliver. The instructors tend to know a bit from one and
a bit from the other and they can not be experts in both systems. I have seen a
few of these in the past, or people who dabble in multiples styles and teach
both. I studied Judo and a bunch of other arts short term, but gave them up to
study Karate harder. I have not done other styles in some times because I don’t
want to be a student of many and want to focus on being an instructor in one.
Again, this is not a mixing of ideas only, this is a mixing of styles!
A good instructor can mix
different styles and often three together to form a basis for their Dojo
training. Some can do sport and traditional, even if they are often seen as
opposing ideals, or defence and traditional or using Hybrid and defence. The need
for multiple focuses will also serve to open up your income stream as well.
While its better to have a Dojo that is focused on a specific stream of
training,
To have a viable gym you may
have several coaches who focus on different things like Yoga, Running or weight
training. In a Dojo you may also have a Sport focused Sensei, a Self Defense
focused instructor and a traditional instructor. A good instructor should be
able to do more than one, but they may focus on one only.
The Training styles of Karate
are often fluid and you can enter a club and see different kind of training at
different parts of the year. The important part is that you find a club that
you enjoy.
