Karate Talk

Where's the Karate?

It's true, I'm not posting as often as I used to.  This doesn't mean the blog will cease to exist!  It just means that until the end of this year, things might be a little sparse.

You see, I have this little thing called my wedding coming up at the end of December, and it's consuming ever-increasing amounts of my time.  This hasn't stopped me from training, but is sucking up just about every available millisecond outside of work, karate and sleep.  Many of you know how that goes.  It's a good and happy thing, but it's taking the front seat!

In the karate world, my training is challenging but mostly rewarding.  I came back from Nationals inspired to work hard and improve.  For the past month I have not only gone to all trainings and Instructor Training, but for the most part I have gone eagerly.  I have had better spirit, tried harder, really focused on my karate, and come home tired and sore!  It's been wonderful, after months of feeling somewhat flat despite my best efforts.  I think and hope that this will pay off with one of the breakthroughs you get, where your karate "jumps" to the next level... which isn't really a sudden leap higher, but the result of hard work for a long time which didn't necessarily yield visible results.

The only interesting twist has come, surprisingly, in the beginner class that I assist with on weekends.  Not from one of the kids, but from one of the adults.  The man in question is a perfectionist, an engineer by profession who has friends who have been doing this for several years.  He has now been doing it for exactly 3 class sessions.  He believes that he should be progressing faster, and is easily frustrated.  He is not adapting well to the format of a karate class.  It is posing interesting dilemmas from a teaching perspective.

For example, he was part of my group a week and a half ago.  It was a mixed group, kids and adults, the newest members of the class.  I quickly realized that none of them had retained anything from their first class, so I started from the beginning:  Here's how you make a fist, here's how you do a punch, here's how you do the basic blocks.  First we try it standing in place.  Now add your feet.  Here's how you turn.  Such basic things that are second nature to higher belts, which look so simple, and which are surprisingly difficult to do when you are first learning karate.

Here's where the teaching style of traditional karate started to butt heads with the engineer.  He wanted everything explained, move by move, inch by inch, to the smallest detail.  The rest of the group, including 4 young kids, would have been bored to distraction -- and that's not the way traditional karate is taught at the beginner levels anyway.  We demonstrate then we make you do the movements, again and again and again.  We will try to help you do them correctly until they start to feel more comfortable.  We do not expect karate perfection, just a decent attempt at mimicking the new movement. 

The engineer did not want to move on from one technique until he'd "mastered" it, and was frustrated by being presented with a new idea when he didn't feel comfortable with the old one yet.  At the end of class, when requested to do something one more time, he refused, and said, "I'm done for the day."

In a normal class, of course, this is not tolerated.  I would have had to tell him to bow out at that point.  However, it was the end of our beginner class, which is less formal.  I settled for giving an "uplifting" chat to the entire group, telling them not to worry if they found things frustrating and overwhelming at times.  I reminded them that every single person in that dojo, including the black belts, had at some time had their first day, first week, first month in karate.  We've all been there, we all went through the same things, we understand.  This is a speech I've given many times before.  Some people listen, most don't.  Most think I'm humoring them, when in fact I'm just telling them the simple truth.

I could see in the engineer's face that he did not believe me.  I did not expect to see him back the next week.  When I told Sensei about what had happened, he too shook his head, and did not expect to see him again. 

He showed up last weekend though, and tried again.  I don't know if, having signed up for an entire month, he is the sort who will complete the month come hell or high water and it means nothing beyond that.  I don't know if maybe my words sunk in.  I don't know if his friends reinforced what I had to say.  But there he was.  The man who taught his group last weekend said that the engineer seemed more relaxed and more forgiving of himself, and thought maybe my talk had helped. 

It will be interesting to see how this develops!

Where Karate Meets the Blog

I have been pondering the boundaries I set up on this blog of how far to go, how much to say, how much responsibility I have other than just writing whatever's on my mind and walking away. I'm happy when someone posts up a good comment, and of course I'm always flattered if someone says they like something I've said.

But it poses a dilemma as well. I'm not a Sensei, and I don't want to set myself up to be more than I am. I have the kind of skill and knowledge that you get from training hard at something for several years, and caring enough about it to read up on the background and learn as much as you can about it. That's certainly more than the average guy off the street, but far less than many people that I know and respect.

At the heart of it though, this is an online diary. My diary topic happens to be my thoughts and experiences in the martial arts. It's a discussion forum, to some extent it becomes a teaching forum at times, but that's not what I had in mind when I started. It evolved that way though and that's great, but it changed the nature of the beast. I love discussing martial arts with people, I love hearing about other people's experiences. If I hear of problems I've encountered before, I'm happy to offer my opinion on ways to approach them. I'm happy to share issues I'm dealing with and see what people have to say.

I have set limits now, though. There are things I might think, things I might say one-on-one, that I don't post live. I do this for several reasons, including a realization that what is right for me is not right for everyone. I also am careful because I have listed my affiliations in the martial arts world, and would not want to misrepresent my organization. Although I've been vague about details, anyone from my region (and some outside of it) would have no trouble identifying me if they stumbled across this blog.

This occasionally makes it very difficult to answer some questions, especially if my answer would be negative. I'm here to celebrate my experiences, not to attack someone else's way of doing things. That does battle with my desire to speak my mind, especially if I hear something I can't agree with, especially since this is a personal blog. At the same time, I want to make sure that I represent my senseis properly and well.

Where does my place in the greater karate whole meet the blog? Maybe if I hadn't listed my affiliations up front, I'd be less cautious in my responses. But my background is an integral part of how I approach martial arts, and I wanted visitors to know up front where I was coming from. Otherwise, I'm just another blogger babbling out of context.

Anyhow, for those who have gotten this far, here's the status quo of karate itself, in my life, on this day: I'm undergoing a bit of a karate renaissance. I have re-evaluated my feelings, thoughts, approaches and commitments. I'm getting excited about working on things that need work, and feel like I'm poised at the starting line of something very exciting in my karate life.

Questions You Should Ask As You Begin Martial Arts Training

A question posted to the blog got me thinking about the many things that factor into martial arts training -- and thanking my lucky stars once again for guiding me into a program that I feel is challenging, substantial, and reputable.  When I hear horror stories of bad dojos, bad instructors, and bad experiences, I can't be anything less than extremely grateful to have been spared all that.

With that in mind, I have put together a set of questions that I think anyone entering a new dojo, or martial arts school, should ask:

1.  Is the dojo part of a bigger organization?  There are a lot of dojos that operate independently.  In many cases, their instructors/operators have put in their time in a larger organization, and decided for whatever reason to go it alone.  This isn't necessarily bad, but it does mean that the head of the dojo is not answerable to any higher body, nor bound by their restrictions -- and it also means that you won't  necessarily get the same training they received, which made them into the martial artist you see before you.

2.  Is the instructor qualified? Any martial arts instructor should have at least a black belt from a major martial arts organization.  If they don't, make sure the overall program is supervised by someone who does.  There must be accountability.  Another question is, what is their black belt in?  If they have a black belt in karate, that's great -- but it doesn't make them qualified to teach tae kwon do.  A bad instructor can not only teach bad habits, they can ruin the martial arts experience completely.

3.  How much money do they want up front?  Keeping a dojo running requires money:  Rent, power, water, insurance.  There is an unavoidable business aspect to any dojo.  However, martial arts should always come first.  If you're being asked to sign contracts of any kind (other than the standard injury release), or being asked to pay months in advance, take a hard look at what they want.  Ask questions, and demand specific answers.  Legitimate martial arts schools have nothing to hide.

4.  What martial arts style do they offer?  Martial arts are not "one size fits all", and there are so many different styles that the novice can get confused.  Do a little research to make sure you're starting something that suits you.  If you don't see yourself doing aggressive full contact sparring, for example, you might look into Tai Chi instead of Muy Thai.

5.  How do they advertise?  Irrelevant, you say?  Not hardly.  This ties in with the "business" aspect already mentioned.  A dojo needs to maintain a decent number of students, and hopefully attract new members.  However, some types of advertising smack of "money before martial arts".  We went to watch the Shaolin monks perform, and there was a large group of students from a local karate school wearing their t-shirts, running around promoting their school to the audience with flyers, etc.  Little kids kept running up to me and asking me if I wanted to try karate.  This was distracting at best, and in my view, wholly inappropriate.

6.  What do they ask of you outside of the dojo?  I throw this one in because of the horror stories I've heard, to help new martial artists avoid anything that seems like a cult.  So, what's reasonable to ask of you in your personal time?  Well, they'll ask you to practice.  That's fair.  If your dojo/region is hosting a tournament, it's fair to ask you to participate, help out, or at the very least show up to support those who do.  It's fair to tell you not to use your martial arts inappropriately outside of the dojo, like whacking your fellow students at school with a ridge hand.  However, it should never intrude on your life or tell you how to live.  Continued training in a good martial arts school will almost always have a positive impact on how you interact with others, how you do in school, how you behave at work -- but it should never attempt to dictate any of those things.

7.  Last but perhaps most important of all:  How do you feel?  I'm not talking about whether or not you're pissed off at your sensei right now, or whether you got dinged up doing a drill last week, or pulled a muscle.  What I mean is, are you happy with what you're doing?  Do you trust and respect your instructor?  Do you like the classes?  Do you feel safe there?  Do you feel like your time there is well spent?  Are you comfortable with how things are set up and with what they're asking you?  If not, figure out why, and do it right away.  You should never be asked to do anything that does not feel right or comfortable. 

One thing I recommend to everyone before they sign on with a dojo is to observe a class or two. Get a feel for what they do in their normal training, how the students act, and whether or not you like the instructor. If for any reason, at any point in your training, you are questioning whether you made the right choice, do the same thing -- go out and visit a couple of other dojos, and compare them to yours. A picture really can be worth 1000 words!