The training styles of Karate

 

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.

Dogi de no seikatsu

 

                If you want to have a laugh, you are really into Karate or you are my wife, you may want to read this….if you don’t fit the bill for these then you probably should skip this post…and get a sense of humor!  Seriously this post is going to dip a bit into my mentality, which is a strange place to go in the first place, but humorous none the less.

 

                So, the other night I was out with my lovely wife, wining and dining at one of our local high end…okay we were at the local subway eating our favorite sandwiches. We settled on this restaurant as it was convenient and we were out running around when our respite worker and Emma’s bestie was taking care of her. After a few minutes of reviewing what we had to get done for the night out our conversation finally came to one of the most common conversations we have…which is her asking “And what the hell were you doing in your office today?”, a question you won’t be surprised is very common when we chat.

                See I work at home right now and I basically live in my office, a space that we sort of share, her end of the office is nestled in the “Library” end of the room and mine is a cold white table with two laptops (one of which I use for stuff like this and the other strictly work). Anyways the last few days I have been doing some spring cleaning such as looking at books, magazines and old stuff to see what I can toss. I am right now looking at lightening the load because we have been sort of looking at moving into a new home in the next year or so and I don’t want to haul stuff I don’t need to. Of course, I am wanting a home with a nice area in the basement to train in and possibly a double car garage for a Dojo…er my car to have room to stretch out…yah, that’s it!

 

                So, this week I turned to the old chest of drawers I have been lugging around for years, they were my brothers when we grew up and I have had them for years. I normally keep things in them that hold special memories for me. I opened the top drawer and found an old Billy club that the city of Winnipeg gave my instructor for teaching them self defense years ago, I inherited it from him.  I also had a old New Yorks Knicks jersey (Patrick Ewing) from when I loved the NBA. I also had a bunch of stuff I used to use for tournament first aide and training. Ankle wrap cloth, Tape and such. All of this stayed put, the next FIVE drawers were Old uniforms…..Karate Gi’s actually (well two Judo Gi’s and 12 Karate Gi’s). This is what the story is actually about!

                I knew I would not have a tone of time to go through the drawers of Uniforms but I also knew I had to toss out a few, I have Gi’s from when I was in my teens that I cant wear for various reason, which I will outline in a bit, and newer ones that I simply don’t wear because I have been using a different brand of Gi. I took all the uniforms out and piled their perfectly folded “bodies” up into three different piles near my desk and started going through them. I picked up the oldest uniforms first and opened them up, held the jackets open, inspected the pants and checked out each rip, each stain and the color that the materials changed too. Each Gi had its own history, the older ones…which were much smaller than I could wear now…were white, had little wear on them and old ISKF Patches that were faded badly, one I could not read clearly. They were light cotton, felt almost fluffy and soft as time had not compressed them and they did not hold a lot of perspiration to alter them.

                The older ones held lots of memories of the kid’s classes at the old JKA of Manitoba headquarters from when I was a pre-teen and into my teens. I remember training under Tammy Sensei and other assistant instructors as well as early classes with Sensei D filled with lots of basics, marching back and forth on the third floor Dojo. The kid’s classes focused on super basic work outs that made my tired and challenged but they were not designed to kill us.

                I dug deeper into the old uniforms finding those that I accumulated in my late teens and early adult hood, the Canvas uniforms that felt stiff, rough and had yellowed over time. They were the ones that I wore when I went into the classes in East St. Paul and when we moved to the first floor of the Albert street club. Those were the classes that you needed three uniforms a week to cover you when you were in the trials of the Dojo, beating up your body and challenging your soul in class. The uniforms were all tattered, shredded and you could feel the wear on the once thick canvas, thinned out in the elbows, knees, thighs, and the once pristine collar and reinforced areas of the Gi were now worn and frayed.

                Each uniform that I opened up and held out had its own memory and as I told Mags about the Uniforms little memories flooded back, weird ones that had nothing to do with the Karate itself as well. The guy that had his tailor shop around the corner from the Dojo that altered all our uniforms for us, the way his thick accent made it hard to understand him, and his crooked smile with his one yellow tooth. How in the summer you did not want a Gi mended, hemmed or patched because he never showered and had no air conditioning in his shop, saying “In Trinidad this is winter”. The way the bag from Mikado felt when you got it from Pat and the anticipation of wearing a new Uniform for the first time in a class would feel like wearing a tank! Each uniform I opened up held its own memory but it also opened the flood gates for other memories.

                The problem soon flooded in as I was opening up and unfolding Uniforms, trying some on and inevitably throwing them in one of two piles, toss or keep! The problem was…the uniforms ended up feeling lifeless. I don’t know what I expected but I was not struck with some mystic Ki ball of emotion or some thunder bolt of memory from the Gi itself, I had the memories and they spurred them on, but I realized that the memories were coming from me, not the uniform. They felt dead, they felt lifeless and for the most part…they felt sort of gross! Some were so soaked in oils and perspiration that had dried, been partially washed out and then reapplied in classes long since forgotten and then redried. They had been tossed aside because some were to small, old and in most cases, ripped up and in tatters. They did not hold any answers to the questions I am constantly asking nor did they feel like they would serve to motivate me at all. They were dead!

                I had thought by putting them in the chest of drawers that they would serve to motivate me and more so that they would keep my memories alive about training with my Sensei and the many masters he brought in and more so with the others in our organization whom I miss training with. They did not! The piles and piles of Karate uniforms that I was going to toss out became much larger and the piles of those that I was going to keep very small, and made up of Gi’s I could still use if push came to shove.

I recognised different uniforms that I was throwing into the “Toss” pile as a tournament uniform that I had purchased brand new that I wore twice, the last time I broke my nose so bad that the front of the white canvas was soaked in my own blood and the stain never came out. The brownish blobs on the front to horrible to wear in regular classes and not acceptable to wear when teaching. One of the uniforms so badly ripped up that the patches were held together with other patches…in the jacket and the legs. One particular rip being given to me by a senior as he demonstrated Heian Godans Mawashi Shuto Gedan and almost ripping my pants clean off me! None of these uniforms were in anyway going to be used other than to clean a Dojo floor.

As I put on old Gi tops were opened and I put them on I started to think about how the old uniforms that I was trying on felt next to the ones I currently wear. Admittedly it was at first me thinking how snug they were, and how the material felt or how lose they were and how the canvas was rough and not at all as soft as the ones I currently wear. However, my mind drifted more to the life in the uniforms and how the old ones felt like corpses of lost times and not something I want to hold onto! Most of the ones in the toss pile were their because they simply did not fit, or they were stained and ripped up…but some felt wrong. They had big round circles that once held ISKF patches, which I have not been a member of for Decades, or they were from a time that we drifted outside of any organization but trained like we had something to prove.

I put the Gi’s on looking for Daijina omoide or precious memories, and all I found was lifeless cloth, so the old duck canvas, now yellowed with time and missing the life force we imbibe into them…ended up on a pile on my floor waiting to be put into a garbage bag and tossed out. This lock down and the spring cleaning I am doing have really opened up my mind to the important things, to not just remembering the old training but in focusing on making new memories and new training memories.

Coming of age as an instructor.

 

Growing up in Karate I never dreamt that I would teach this great art one day. I was so nervous the first few times I was asked to teach Karate and that feeling lasted for years every time my instructor asked me to take juniors aside or to take the class for him or even just do a demonstration. I did not feel comfortable teaching and I never felt comfortable teaching in front of my instructor. To me Dingman Sensei was the best instructor I had ever trained under and he turned out great instructors like Terry Proctor and Jarvis Kohut who both cared and had the skills to teach and help students grow. My skills were “developing” but nothing close to these giants.

                I remember when I started in Karate there was a lot of different expectations on students. Not only did you bust your butt to learn and just to workout towards demonstration of good Karate but the end result or the focus was always on just performing. Now everyone wants a reward, a new rank or something, to reward them for good work outs. Our rewards…harder classes.

One of the other major changes is the warm up. It was expected that you show up before class and do your own warm up. You kind of built your warm ups around what you needed. Generally, we did a lot of bouncy things, some stretching and of course Kumite drills or just movement drills. Most of the instructors who came into the city did get a senior to warm up the classes, when asked it was because of the lack of floor space to warm up between classes….but Sensei Dingman told me that the seniors who came in normally used this to kill time and talk to Sensei about those testing so they could keep an eye on us as well as burn off some of the time that they were to use to teach (often showing up with specialty classes that were designed to be 45 minutes long and having to teach a full hour….this was by design as they often would get side tracked and use the full hour….but just in case add a warm up to burn off time).

To say we never did warm ups would be….inaccurate, but it was rare and normally short. Sensei and other instructor normally built their training up from just very basic work to a high point or Karate Crescendo! Then he would take us back down again and we would rest up a bit before going back at it again. Dingman Sensei once told me that all that fancy YOGA stretching done before class is a waste and we should be doing that on our own after class. It would take me years to confirm this was “Science” and not just Dingman Sensei’s way of doing things. I remember Yaguchi Sensei coming in and the warm up better be less than 5 minutes and all about getting us moving or he just interject and start teaching.

So, I had established in my own training to show up before class and get ready for working out by doing my own prep work and my own warm up so I would not waste any of my instructors teaching time, every single class I had “aha” moments and taking extra time to stretch out when I could be finding those light bulb going off was a waste of my time! And yes…I am getting to the point.

Over time I began following Dingman Sensei around more and more and learning more and more, but I was still kind of shy when it came to training. I was a young man who was in fairly good shape and worked hard in class, but I was by no means a Karate team member who put hours and hours into training for tournaments, and as I found out later Dingman Sensei said that was by design. I was however kind of nervous when asked to teach and scared I would let Sensei down, hurt someone or get in trouble for something I said or did while representing Dingman Sensei. I would on occasion be given a full class to teach (After getting my Shodan) and have to step in and teach a full class for Dingman Sensei or his son.

On those occasions I strived to teach how I was taught, to give the students a taste of the old training. Our training had softened a bit over the years and Dingman Sensei told me it was a necessity but not to change my personal training at all, and to teach how I liked…..So I did. I became very “militant” in my approach, barking orders…being super serious…and sticking to the old way…so no warm ups.  However, I would still get stomach pain before teaching and then fret over what I taught for two or three days, wondering if I lived up to my instructor’s expectations and if any of it was going to bite me in the butt when I saw Sensei again next. I was strict but unsure of myself and a few times while teaching I would see a student or senior students face with a look like “Really” and I would melt inside.

As time went on this trend of questioning myself continued, I taught good classes, each of them designed to melt someone from the inside out and cause great pain the next day! I was brutal and the classes were made up of the harshest training I could find in my notes and library. I tried everything that was hard on myself first of course but I knew my classes were challenging for anyone, if not technically perfect. I abandoned the new idea of doing a warm up with Sensei’s blessing and started class off easy, then went full blast with combos, exercises and repetitions, and the only rest was when I was giving the students the new drills to do and instructing them…other than that it was 98% balls to the wall after a brief and progressive start.

After some time I began trying to dig deep and teach technically more interesting classes and dig deeper into the fundamentals. Sensei guided me to be less about the great work outs and more about the technical guidance, but still be tough and once and a while do a butt kicker. It was around the time I was beginning to tone down the insanity that the event occurred that showed me that I was beginning to respect my own teaching and accept that I was not a horrible stand in for Sensei. I had taught under some of the best and I still felt up to that point that I was learning, I was still shaky and if confronted, questioned or even ignored I shrank!

On day I was going to Taylor Dojo and Sensei called me and said he had to go out of town and asked if I could take his class. I was more than happy to jump on the chance to teach for him, taking my normal stance that I was going to offer the students a good solid and challenging class, and this day I had a visitor from a different organization I had met online coming to take a class, little did they know it would be me teaching!

At the start of class I noticed that we had a lot of brown belts from all over, at least 10 from different clubs including Sensei Sons Dojo and down town as well as my friend (who was a Shodan) and a few other black belts. Most of the class was higher ranking so I immediately started thinking of being a bit less technical and pushing the kumite as much as I could. We warmed up with some basics in a standing position and then moving, then we did some drills and Kata and at about the half way point we broke into Kumite, three step, then one step, then semi free and finally some drills to really push the pace, it was not an ass kicker but it sure was hard. Everyone was soaked to the bone and dragging themselves off the floor. I was elated and loved teaching and training hard, that light feeling you get when all your energy is sapped away. You just want to nap but you also have clarity and feel light as a cloud…but that’s when it happened.

Just as I was getting ready to leave and finished talking to a few of the other seniors on the floor I was approached and, the only way to put this, cornered by one of Sensei Sons senior brown belts. At first I thought he was going to thank me like the others had for a hard class, then I realized by the look on his face that he was not as happy as I first figured he would be. In fact he looked livid once I put my full attention on his face. He gently asked to speak with me but his eyes were shooting daggers at me and I did not want to have any kind of confrontation in front of the other students and ushered him off the floor into a small training area that the facility had for kids gymnastics.

His name was Jim and he was a good foot taller than me and a few decades older. He was a big-ish guy who had long arms and a rough face but his karate was stiff and he was slow on his feet but the kind of guy who wore his chip firmly on his shoulder in class wanting to prove his worth and his Machismo against others. He was sort of a “Dorky bully” as Sensei Dingman called him, he pushed around smaller people and ladies a lot in class and felt because he wanted to prove his dominance and he was friendly with the instructor (his instructor) enough that he had that kind of space to do so.

Jim started off right away complaining about my class by saying “I am not one to complain but…” that’s a clear sign you are about to complain and I find it practiced enough of an intro that I see through it as an excuse to complain and still try and look like someone that does not complain. Little did I know that later Sensei AND his instructor would tell me that Jim was difficult and liked to bitch about everything.

Jim was still dripping and his red face was a sign of a great work out, but he was also upset with the effort he had to put in, that’s not what he said however, but I noted that several times in class he would take breaks I did not call for and he would take his foot off the gas and go slow when partners challenged him. He did this when attacking so he had some control of pace and then wore a grimace when chased and forced to defend himself. But Jim was them to complain and put the young instructor in his place. He leaned against a pile of folded mats, but still stool a good head and a half above my head. He leaned in and I could feel the anger on his warm breath (Okay I couldn’t but that just sounds crazy dramatic) and he spoke in hushed tones (this part is true he was sort of whispering).

Jim first broached his issue with my teaching by complaining about how I did not do the classes the way he was used to. I stook with my Karate gear in my hands wanting to go and change to get home for a shower, but felt it was important to let him finish his thought. Honestly, I did not want to offend him but the way he was approaching this conversation was very uncomfortable and I just wanted out of their. He continued on saying how he did not feel the value in attending classes taught by Juniors (rich seeing as he was a 3^rd kyu and I was a Shodan) and how he would have liked to have know about the change in instructors earlier so he could have made a decision to not attend. He added for emphasis that he felt my class was perhaps “unsafe, harsh and not of benefit to him” he added as emphasise his displeasure with the work out.

Now at this point its important to note that I had taken a lot of sports training courses in school (university level), had been training in Karate for about 25 years or so and honestly did not think his argument held any water. I was now starting to boil at a low level inside.  Also, keep in mind that most of the people who had attended, including my visitor from another club, had just congratulated me and were fine with the hard work out, in fact some said they loved it…and I am assuming they were not just padding  my ego as they genuinely seemed happy and smiled all the way to the change room.

I stood silent for a minute or two before uttering, quietly as I was partially still in shock over his affront and break in protocol and partially seething at it, that I had simply repeated the class content that Sensei had taught at lunch that very day.  And it was fine by Dingman Sensei, so it is not something I wanted to get into. I thought for a quick second and asked him what exactly he did not like about the class.  But by this point he had read me and knew I was not as confident as I should have been and he tried to pounce by making himself bigger, raising his voice and starting to use large, sweeping hand movements when complaining.  Almost shouting he said “we always do warm ups before class and some of us need them to make sure we don’t get hurt”. He was adamant and went on with “You know by not doing one if we get hurt its your fault, that’s dangerous and you should not teach again!”. 

At that point I lost my self doubt, my Welsh blood was now on full boil and any sense of holding back to save face was gone. I looked him right in the eyes and shot back at him in such a cold and even voice that he knew he had pushed his hissy fit past the point it was allowed, he had broken several rules of etiquette and common sense and was now in hot water. He knew just by my look that this was now far to much. You can have concerns but to act like a child and act out to a senior was to sign your own exit papers. His total lack of proper personal control and his attack was not something I could let slip by, even if I had started the conversation off apologetically any sign of me being “nice” to him was gone, and any concern for not pissing him off were long gone.

I balled up my fists at this point and glared at him. I told him that we never use to do warm ups and take time out of class that we could be working out in to warm up. I think it probably came out “I don’t waste my time with long Yoga warm ups, its not the way we did it and not the way I do it, don’t waste my time asking to stretch out when you SHOULD be doing that on your own time. I get here early and warm up on my own, you should do the same if you need extra time”.  I could see he wanted to shoot back with something but I stopped him by shifting towards him and raising my hand to continue.

“Black belts adapt to training with a variety of people, they maintain growth this way, they seek out new challenges and they try and grow as a person this way, They take what works for them by adapting it into their current training programs and they make sure if they need extra time to warm up or work on things they get to class early to do so”…..” If you ever want to be a black belt you have to stop thinking like a junior”. I was mad but still trying to make this a teachable moment….After all I was still the assistant instructor and he was just a junior learning Karate…

He did not exactly take this the way I wanted and you could see him seething again inside, he stood up with his full height over me. Now the training area was clear of students and it was just Jim and myself. His face went from red from the work out to purple from the anger that was welling up in him. I realized I needed to defuse this or it would escalate out of control and honestly I did not know Jim that well and a war of words and hurt feelings was excusable by Sensei Dingman but I knew a physical altercation would not keep me in his good graces.

A physical fight would be the result of the current path we were on so I had to turn this boat around and figure out a better way, but I was not going to agree with him or change anything at that point. I reached into my pocket and grabbed a rectangular piece of paper in my jacket pocket with out taking my eyes off of Jim. As I took it out I raised my hand to give it to him, he did not reach out for it however. “this is my business card, it has my cell number on it and I tell you what, if you are ever going to come and take a class here you can call me and I will let you know if I am teaching or if Sensei is teaching. How does that sound?”. My offer was a poke at him, I was giving him an out but not backing down. I figured this was the best route to take in this case.

He grabbed the card and turned to grab his street clothing and bag, I was already half way down the hall way when he turned back. I changed out and got in my car. The further away I got from the situation the more mad I got and the more it ran through my head the more upset I got not just at Jim, but how I had first felt when he attacked me over my teaching. The complete lack of etiquette was one thing, but I should have immediately told him that their was a proper way to talk to seniors or even other people in general and he was not winning any personality contests with his approach.

A day later and much calmer I sat with Sensei having our daily coffee break after the noon class and I brought up the incident with Sensei to not only inform him of the issue but also to get his input into how I did or what I should have done to avoid that situation again.  As we sat in the local Tim Hortons drinking our coffee I gave Sensei my side of the situation and tried to be as matter of fact as I could be, even saying “you know Jim is stiff as hell and probably should stretch more before class”, so sort of a back handed admission that he needs the time to stretch, but adding not on my time.

Sensei’s reply was perfect. Apparently, Jim had gone home stewing and seething and called his instructor to compline (Sensei’s son), who then called Sensei. Sensei said “Yah, Brian had called me, you know Jim is a big baby….he I an old man in a middle aged mans body who cant stop acting like a baby”, “ I checked with a few others who had trained and they liked the class, the old school hard class was a hit, but you need to remember you can not make everyone happy and you will have those that want their work outs to be patty cake and they don’t want to get their expensive Gi wet…..ignore them…actually push them harder…they may grow and learn and you have converted them to a black belt mentality, or they drop out and go train in an easy club…you win both ways”. “ you stood up for yourself and you did the right thing, you did not fight with him and you may not have gained anything other than the understanding that some people’s opinions are important but only yours should be the one you worry about.”

 

Years later I reflected on this incident, as I always tend to do, and I knew it was that minute that I found my voice. Prior to that I worried about everything everyone thought, Now my opinions on what I am doing and teaching are the more important ones. I also learned that its okay to stand up for yourself against those that are older or those that may have authority you don’t have, you should never feel scared of losing a student who is not willing to learn and grow as well. I also look back and realize how much Dingman Sensei taught me about Karate but more so about myself and things other than Karate related.

How I reacted at that moment has made me a better instructor and helped me build off of my own learning and more importantly that I don’t know everything and should continue to learn, but have faith and confidence in myself in what I know and do. This was a coming of age for me as an instructor.