Nana-Korobi, Ya-Oki

Nana-Korobi, Ya-Oki

There is a Japanese proverb that says “if you fall down seven times, get up eight”. This proverb has been adopted by the Karate community to illustrate one of the most important aspects of Karate and life in general…..perseverance!

Karate itself is all about effort and what you are doing in your life to move forward. We encounter so many hurdles, setbacks and issues when we train, it’s the strong that remember and live Nana-Korobi, Ya oki. We will not always succeed, we will fail at testing’s, experience injuries that set us back, leave organizations and instructors, experience personal loss, lose friends….family and also instructors to life’s continuous cycle. But the strong remember that when you lose your footing on the path and fall off, you simply stand up, dust yourself off and continue on.

In my training I have had many injuries that kept me from the hard training I love, and a few things that kept me from training completely for a short time. However, each time I came back hungry and wanting to train and work on my spirit more. That is fall down seven, get up eight.

You will get knocked down and pushed off the path several times in your training, the key to being successful is correcting and getting back on the path.

Hundreds of years ago navigation was not as sophisticated as it is now. To sale from England to Canada, my family first started in Portland Dorset, and literally criss-crossed their way across the Atlantic to get here, off course 90% of the time….NINTY PERCENT! The only way that they got here, other than the boat not having a hole in it, was by correcting a tad here and a tad there, and the captain and crew knowing that you need to correct from time to time to stay the course. Times have not changed much, did you know that when flying a plane, a pilot is only “on course” about 40% of the time, that means 60% of the time he is flying in a path that will not get you to your destination! The key is that they make corrections and find their way home.

Life and Karate is a lot like the pilot and captain. They find that the oceans waves and currents, wind and other factors are always pushing them off course, they make corrections, sometimes small and sometimes big, and they find their way back on course. This is the true spirit of Nana-Korobi, Ya Oki. Even when you find yourself “off Course”….Correct for the distractions, tests and trials that life throws at you and then you can find your way back on course.

When I teach, I talk a lot about effort and doing your best. But a lot of what I would say is a prerequisite for black belt is character and spirit. The ability to face adversity and grow from it, to surpass the trials and tribulations that life throws at us and to correct our path back to the goals we have set. To take the Adversity straight on and overcome it, to be knocked down by life’s misfortunes and vexing woe and stand back up and dust yourself off…and carry on.

Life is not a sprint, it’s a marathon and on that marathon you will have to slow down and rest, speed up to overcome and even climb mountains once and a while. The key to all of this is to simply push forward, even when you don’t think you can.