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Discourtesy in the Martial Arts

Discourtesy in the Martial Arts
By Bob Davis (Edited by Dan Blackmore)
12 March 2015

Recently I have been thinking about the Niju Kun, and this has lead me to reflect upon some personal experiences I have had throughout my years of training in different arts.  O’sensei Gichin Funakoshi wrote the twenty precepts to guide karate practitioners as they train.  One precept states “everything begins with rei and ends with rei”.  This goes beyond just bowing.  Bowing itself is a sign of respect.  Respect for each other, the art, and for oneself.  Some recent events have compelled me to write on the topic of the “loss of courtesy” in the Martial Arts.  Sensei Egami wrote “He who would follow the way of karate must be courteous, not only in training but in daily life”.  This brings in another precept of O’sensei Funakoshi, “karate is not only dojo training.”  The lessons we learn in the dojo, carry over into how we live and act in our daily lives.  The responsibility and respect that you give and are given in the dojo reflects the way you behave outside the dojo.  Courtesy and respect need to extend past the dojo walls.

Within Martial Sports like Tae Kwon Do and Judo, there is a certain amount competitiveness.  The desire to win comes along with competition. You view your opponent as someone who needs to be defeated.  A little competitiveness can be good but the ego can take over if not guided properly.  In the pursuit of the win, sometimes poor sportsmanship or a poor attitude is excused for someone who possess a high degree of skill.  A coach or sensei might excuse these students’ behaviours as a necessary evil to place high in competitions.  They establish that cultivating an ego is what hones the competitive edge and gives the competitor his drive.  I do not believe that a sacrifice in the personality of the competitor is necessary at all.  I would go so far as to say that the more contact there is in an art and the greater the chance of injury, the more courtesy has to be maintained.  The competitors bow to enter the ring, give their complete focus and control to outmatch their opponent, and bow to exit the ring and return to being comrades.

The loss of courtesy is not exclusive to the sport side.  The focus is on self-defence in Martial Arts like Aikido and Karate, with less emphasis on competition.  Still, the ego can become inflated if not kept in check.  Sensei Stanley Pranin coined the term “Macho Cruncher” for those who show a lack of courtesy in Aikido practice.  There will always be some minor injuries in all practice that has contact, but whenever these individuals are involved, injuries tend to be more frequent.  In my Aikido-training days, I have encountered my share of these individuals.  Often this person a senior student, sometimes a sensei, and usually male.  In a dojo that I visited often there was a senior student that loved to twist students’ wrists too far, slam them to the ground very hard, and often wore a gi that was too small so it would come flying open when he practiced.  Luckily, Aikido tends not to attract too many non-courteous folk, as the art is non-aggressive in nature; blending with your opponent instead of meeting with force.  Still, the prospect that these “elbow straighteners and shoulder expanders” are in the senior ranks of dojos, is a little concerning because they are supposed to be the example for students to follow.  Nurturing healthy attitudes throughout a student’s journey in the martial arts is the best way to prevent bigger problems down the road.

The appearance of the “macho cruncher” is even more prevalent in more aggressive arts, like Shotokan karate.  Within the karate circles, a new term has arisen; the “Karate Douche”.  Once again, they tend to be males within the senior student and sensei ranks.  Karate is very self-defense oriented but there is a certain amount of competition as well.  I remember once asking a senior student a question about Ashi Barai (leg sweeping) techniques, only to have my legs kicked out from under me repeatedly without any explanation or assistance in break falling.  Needless to say, I didn’t ask that question again.  This same senior would also use any opportunity in class to punch and kick students a little too hard when they were used for demonstration.  He never did this in kumite or kumite drills, where there was a chance of reprisal.  This particular dojo seemed to applaud this type of behaviour, and in fact had 2-3 seniors just like this.  The attitude became that you had to be tough enough to handle it, because that’s what makes strong karate.  There is a line in a Macklemore song that rings true here: “If you preach hate at the service, those words aren’t anointed, and that Holy Water, that you soak in is then poisoned”.  The lessons in the dojo flow from the sensei to the seniors to the juniors.  There were derogatory remarks made of females, differently-abled students, and other martial art styles.  I have personally been the recipient of disparaging remarks about tattoos, piercings, being “too courteous” in nature, not blocking or hitting hard enough, and had more injuries than I can count.  You will find that once this behaviour is ignored or approved of by the seniors or sensei, it will spread like a virus.  The students that accept this lack of courtesy, they will replicate it, and the students that reject it, will leave the dojo.  The only reason why I tolerated any of this was because of the good seniors and sensei also in the dojo.  Find me a dojo that has no children, no colored belts, no females, or differently-abled students, and I will show you a dojo where “courtesy” is not part of the curriculum.

Courtesy should carry over into our day-to-day lives outside the dojo.  Once you have made karate a way of life, it becomes part of your personality.  Unfortunately, poor attitudes and behaviours that are tolerated or even promoted by your seniors, may become a part of you as well.  If you have an elevated position in karate because of your rank or tournament success, you have a duty to those who look up to you.  You have influence over the next generation of students in the way you present yourself.  The example you present, has an equal chance of breaking the “Cult of Karate” as well as perpetuating it.  To earn your rank or success and then show a lack of courtesy is inexcusable, even if it is tolerated in your dojo!  Bad behaviour begets bad behaviour.

The internet has become a big influence to students outside the dojo.  Very early on I developed a profound respect for what this technology could do: share information on a world scale.  Just because something is digital and your audience is not physically present, doesn’t make them any less “real”.  Facebook is a great social platform and it can do a lot of good, but it seems to have become the pulpit from which senior karate people are choosing to be discourteous.  I have had to separate myself several times now from seniors making disparaging remarks about other organizations, styles, philosophy, people, and the “correct way” of doing things on Facebook.  Not necessarily because of the content of the remarks – I might agree or disagree – but because Facebook is not the right venue to debate anything.  In the end, it accomplishes nothing, and becomes a “flame war” between two sides.  All that happens is you may lose a little respect for someone who goes a little too far, or people may lose some respect that they had for you because of the way they act online.  The written word is the written word, regardless if it is a book, a newsletter, a website, an email, a blog, or a tweet.  Once something is out there, it’s out there forever.  If someone has seen it, you can be sure someone has saved it, taken a screen shot of it, shared it, forwarded it, or tweeted it.  You now have the ability to reach a million times more people, and therefore do a million times more bad or good, depending on how you act online.

I think the problem here is not only the lack of courtesy, but a failure to understand what courtesy actually means.  Karate is not merely technique and courtesy merely bowing.  O’sensei Funakoshi was a great philosopher as well as a great technician.  He did not establish the Twenty Precepts of Karate and the Dojo Kun for them to be ignored by future generations.  These principles are based on Bushido and Zen, and form the guiding principles to practice karate.  O’sensei Funakoshi wrote: “The ultimate aim of Karate lies not in victory or defeat, but in the perfection of the character of the participant”.

In some karate dojos, the students recite a version of the dojo kun either when bowing in or bowing out for each class.  The dojo kun includes: seek perfection of character, be faithful, endeavor, respect others, and refrain from violent behavior.  It would be wise to remind yourself and all of your students of this important element.  Have your students recite the kun in class, research it, and write about it.  Once it is perfected in the dojo, along with the techniques, it will spill over into their daily lives.  As O’sensei Funakoshi said “the spirit of karate would be lost without courtesy”.

References:
http://blog.aikidojournal.com/2011/09/01/aikido-and-injuries-by-stanley-pranin/
http://www.metrolyrics.com/same-love-lyrics-macklemore.html
http://www.shotokai.com/ingles/gallery/introbeyond4.html

Benefits of Weapons Training

Benefits of Weapons Training for Karate Practitioners
By Bob Davis
Published in the NL Shotokan Newsletter Vol 1, Issue 2, Fall 2013

There are many benefits to Kobujutsu (weapons training). Regular training will improve both your health and your karate.

Kobujutsu and karate have many things in common. Both arts are broken down into kihon (basics), kata (forms), and kumite (fighting). They both share blocking and striking movements such as soto uke (outside block), uchi uke (inside block), uchi (strikes), and zuki (punches). As well, they share some of the same stances, zenkutsu dachi (front stance) and neko ashi dachi (cat stance). Principles such as ma-ai (distance and timing), kime (focus), tai sabaki (body shifting), atemi waza (vital striking points), and mushin (calm mind) are all principles that both weapons and karate training share.

Like karate training, weapons practice is demanding and will improve your endurance. Weapons like bo, sai, tonfa, and kama all weigh a pound or more. Regular practice with them will help develop muscle strength and coordination. Kobujutsu and karate use a lot of the same muscles; the warm-ups and callisthenics are the same. Both weapons and karate classes begin with push-ups, sit-ups, stretching, and core exercises.

Weapons training will improve your reaction skills and bring balance to your techniques.   Mistakes in weapons can be dangerous and therefore safety is very important. Like karate, “getting out of the way” is always the first order of business. Kumite in Kobujutsu, always has a designated attacker and defender. There is always a natural tendency to have a “good side” in karate. To improve the weak side, you may have heard the phrase “twice on the left and once on the right”. Practice with the bo is done on both the right side and left side. As well, after mastering the bo, you will move to the study of sai and tonfa. These weapons are used in pairs, one in each hand.

Learning Kobujutsu kata will introduce karate students to new stances, as well as offer greater understanding of Shotokan Kata you have already been practicing. Stances like Neko ashi dachi (cat stance), Shiko dachi (square stance), and Kosa dachi (crossing stance) are used regularly in Kobu. Some of these are also found in Shotokan but in higher-level katas. Neko ashi dachi (cat stance) shows up in katas such as Gojushiho – Dai, Unsu, and Hangetsu.   Katas such as Jitte, Enpi, and Meikyo have elements of bo in them. One of the first things that I was asked to do in Kobujutsu, was to take a kata from Shotokan that I knew and perform it with sai. I chose Hein Shodan. It was amazing how easy sai fit into the kata!

Training in weapons can also be fun and exciting! It can give a karate student that has gotten bored, a renewed interest in training. Kobujutsu has its own grading and belt rank system. Starting as a white belt can let an advanced karate practitioner become a beginner again.

Training for Shodan

Training for Shodan
By Bob Davis
Published in the NL Shotokan Newsletter Vol 1, Issue 1, Spring 2013

I started training in Shotokan Karate in 2005 and tested successfully for Shodan in 2012.

After I reached brown belt, I had two years to prepare for my Shodan grading. In the first year I concentrated on learning the required kata, Kihon, and kumite for the exam. You will have to know Bassai Dai and Tekki Shodan and one other Heien kata. Know them all well! You have to get to the point where the kata are natural to you. Understanding not just what comes next but also what the techniques are for and the timing of the kata.

In my second year of brown belt, I started working on conditioning as well. Important things to work on would be; core strength, flexibility, and cardio. On top of your karate classes, add in a day or two of cardio a week. Biking, running, swimming, and hiking. Don’t wait until a few months before the exam. With exercise, come injuries. You don’t want to get hurt and be sitting around for weeks waiting for things to heal. Better to suffer the injuries earlier on and over come them. As much as possible, try to replicate karate-training conditions outside the dojo. Make sure to warm up properly. Create routines with bursts of explosiveness and make the routines last an hour to begin and then two hours later on. Wear a jogging suit the same weight as your gi. Drink water before and after your workouts, and not during like a regular class.

Once your conditioning is where you want it (about 6 months), find a buddy to train with. Find another karate guy that is going for Shodan or training for a higher rank. Do an hour of cardio and conditioning followed by an hour of karate. Work your kata and then your sanbon and kumite, just like the exam. Start with the advanced kata and then work backwards. Nothing will help you with your kumite besides more kumite. Train to the point where you can relax in the middle of fighting. Create openings and then capitalize on them. Pressure your opponent, get him to make mistakes and leave openings.

Gradings are usually done at a yearly seminar during the summer, although they can also be done in class. The seminars tend to be 6-8 hours with the grading component at the end. I would recommend going to the one the year before your grading to check it out. There is a break in the middle for lunch. I would recommend bringing two gi’s with you. After lunch you will be able to change into a fresh gi. Drink lots of water before, during lunch, and after the seminar. Dehydration causes dizziness, fatigue, and confusion. Eat food that will give you sustained energy for the seminar and grading without making you sluggish. Avoid coffee and soda as they will dehydrate you.

The Shodan grading is a big milestone in your karate training. Dan gradings are longer, requires more stamina, advanced kata, and kumite than kyu gradings. Keep in mind that Shodan maybe the end of the kyu ranks but it is only the beginning of the dan ranks. If you prepare for it properly, you can be a success at your Shodan grading.

To Kiai or Not to Kiai

To Kiai or Not to Kiai
By Bob Davis (Edited by Dan Blackmore)
29 July 2014

As a person that originally came from aikido, the first thing I noticed when I walked into a karate dojo was how loud it was!  Exhalation sounds, foot stomping, and of course the kiai. The aikido dojo is pretty quiet except for the sounds of break falling (ukemi).  Aikido and karate both use breath power; breathing and technique connected.  In karate, you inhale as you step, and breathe out as you punch.  In aikido, you breathe in as you accept an attack, and you breathe out as you throw, but there is no kiai.  In my opinion, aikido and karate share some similarities: both use distancing, body shifting, and positioning as the founding principles of defence – to get out of the way of attack.  It is only in their goals that they differ – aikido’s goal is to blend your energy with that of your opponent and then to bring them to the ground with a throw or control.  In contrast, karate’s goal is to avoid your opponent and then to strike vital areas.  It is interesting to note that, “The two terms kiai and aiki use the same kanji, but transposed, and can be thought of as the inner and the outer aspect of the same principle.  Kiai is the expression or projection of our own internal energy, while aiki is coordination with an attacker’s energy.” (Wikipedia)

Coming from the aikido environment, I’ve come to ask myself why I need to kiai at all in karate.  As long as my breathing, timing, connection, and body contraction are present as I deliver the technique, would I be delivering any more power simply by adding a “scream”?  Is the kiai just a placebo?  Try testing this theory on a heavy bag.  In the first week, do 20 reverse punches on both right and left hands and kiai on each strike.  In the second week, do the same 20/20 but remain silent with proper breathing.  See if you notice any increase or decrease in power (movement of the bag), as well as which approach made you breathe harder and sweat more.

Some Sensei teach you not to make sounds with your mouth, nor with your hands (slapping your gi or your feet slapping the floor).  From their point of view, making these sounds takes power away from your technique, wastes energy, and telegraphs your attack to your opponent.  Breathing yes, sound no. This simply means not engaging the vocal cords as you perform technique. With all of the other components in place, such as timing, connection, and breathing, the kiai is silent, but still present.

The kiai is a very modern invention; our karate pioneers did not use it.  The early Okinawans had to practice in secret, often in their houses or in graveyards.  These practice sessions were virtually silent.  Making any kind of noise would attract unwanted attention to a banned activity.  As the ban on karate was lifted and practitioners came back out of the shadows, kiai were added to kata for demonstration purposes.  The placements of the kiai in a kata were not rigidly set.  It was felt that the kiai should be spontaneous and it was left up to the student to interpret each kata and kiai when they felt it was appropriate.

Kiai has become a required element for gradings and tournaments.  When demonstrating kihon during gradings, you perform a combination of techniques and kiai on the final one.  Kiai punctuates techniques in kata at specific points, usually twice per karate kata.  While being judged for kata, you have to kiai in the proper places.  For kumite events, you must kiai during attack or counter attack to bring attention to your techniques.  Without kiai being present a competitor or demonstrator may be harder to interpret, or his/her spirit may be seen as weak to the casual observer.

So what is the purpose of a loud kiai?  Is kiai useful?  Sensei will use the kiai as a tool to impart many karate lessons to students.  One of these lessons is proper breathing.  We are told over and over to not hold your breath in karate.  You breathe in when you half step and breathe out as you complete the full step, making kiai on impact.  Secondly, the kiai is used for focus and connection.  Kiai is used to focus breath, forward momentum, and hip rotation, all into a single point. By being silent, it is difficult for the student to learn how to focus the breath, and for the Sensei to know how the students are breathing. Lastly, Sensei will use the kiai to bring out your fighting spirit (Shin Gi Tai).  Shin is spirit, Gi is technique, and Tai is physical fitness.  While Gi and Tai develop rather quickly, Shin takes a while to develop.  Occasionally making a loud kiai is somewhat cathartic as you perform kata or make good contact in a bout. Demonstration of technique would be incomplete if the karateka were holding themselves back during these moments.

Speaking practically, kiai can be used as self-defence.  Kiai is described as an “energetic yell”.  We are told that our kiai should be so loud and piercing that it startles your opponent.  This can come in very handy when you have to defend yourself in the street.  Imagine being downtown at a club or at a party and being grabbed by someone.  A well timed offensive kiai may give you the upper hand by shocking and allowing you to attack first and get out of there.  Kiai may be used defensively as well. Grandmaster Robert Trias suggests that kiai can temporarily harden the body and thus revoke an attack.  He wrote: “The yell will reduce the effect of the shock from any blow or fall.  One almost ceases to exist during the yell, with its suddenly induced tension followed by complete relaxation and little or no sensation of impact.”  Whether the kiai is used offensively or defensively, making noise to draw the attentions of passers-by is important during a confrontation.

Back to our original question: Does making sound have anything to do with generating power? Kiai can be a useful tool in both learning and teaching to impart proper breathing, connection, and Shin Gi Tai to students.  It can be used for self-defence and is a requirement for gradings and competitions.  On the other hand, without the need to demonstrate or perform the art in front of others, is the kiai necessary? Other arts such as Aikido generate great power without the practitioner making any sounds.  As well, there are concerns about kiai draining power and energy from technique, as well as draining stamina from the karateka.  While the kiai does have its place, I see it more as a separate technique or tool for karate training and self-defence. I do not believe that silent karate is equivalent to weaker karate. Is making sound necessary to generate power? I do not believe so, but discover the significance of the kiai for yourselves as you train.

Dai and Shou

Dai and Shou
By Dan Blackmore
03 April 2014

Let’s talk about the concepts of “dai” and “shou” in the context of martial arts and self-defence.

Dai (大 ) means “large” or “big.”  Dai Kanji Translation

Shou (小) means “little” or “small.”  Shou Kanji Translation

As a side note, it is only through actually looking-up this character that I learned that the correct English spelling is “shou.”  Before this discovery I’ve known it to be written as “sho” or “shō” in English.  “Sho” has a variety of meanings and does not mean anything by itself; it needs to be paired with something or used in an expression to give it meaning.  Shō (升) is from an old Japanese system of measurement for volume.  It is still used today, in the production of sake, for example.  Originally one shō of sake was about 1804mL, but it is now 1800mL.  Shō Kanji Translation

The translation of the kanji is pretty straightforward: dai means big, and shou means small, but what are the implications?  We see dai and shou used as suffixes in the names of kata that are paired together.  These suffixes could simply assign dai to the “bigger” kata – the one with the most moves – and shou to the “smaller” kata of a pair.  However it seems more common that we interpret these suffixes as something to indicate the way the moves of each kata should be carried out.  Let’s discuss what it means for something to be considered as being big or small.

When we’re talking about being big, we’re talking full arm and body motion.  This calls for maximum reach of the arm and hip wind-up while you set for a strike/block.  You fully commit to the technique and extended forward just a little bit further to penetrate the target.  The idea is to allow the fist or foot lots of travel distance to fully accelerate and deliver maximum power.  When demonstrating dai while moving forward, you reach a “point of no return” where you cannot retract your body weight halfway through the technique and step back, you can only move forward.

When talking about being small, we’re talking about the use of body shifting and advanced tactics.  In this context “small” refers to the little changes to our approach that can mean all the difference in a confrontation.  There is no set of shou techniques per se; it’s more of an approach to self-defence.  Often, one must generate power with a reduced range of motion.  Proper muscle contraction, hip rotation, timing, and body shifting become even more important without big arm motion.  Generally, small karate happens in the study of application and the practice of kumite.

Shou is about making your blocks and strikes count.  The opportunity to successfully execute a big, powerful technique in a fight is not always there.  Perhaps your opponent can pick up on your timing and you end up striking air, or walking into a fist.  Maybe you don’t have enough time to bring your fist up by your ear and execute a full-motion, classical downward sweeping block to dispatch an incoming kick.  How about if you blocked that jab with maximum effort, but your opponent got a strike in before your counter punch?  What good is utilizing maximum power and energy in a technique if it is not going to be effective?  You’ve got to create openings in your opponent’s defence while maintaining yours, and that’s what being small is all about.  One might learn to rely on body shifting and footwork to avoid attack, rather than taking time to formally block everything that comes in.  This frees up some time to attack your opponent directly, disrupting his timing, and giving the opportunity to follow-up with a maximum power technique.  You draw from experience to develop your own style as you learn to apply the techniques learned on the training floor.

“Dai” is exemplified in the classical forms of each technique while “shou” is developed through experience.  The words I would use to summarize dai and shou are “fundamentals” and “application,” respectively.  Practice of the fundamentals as we train basic and advanced techniques gives us more resources to draw from when we have to apply them.