Respect is honoring what you have agreed to, regardless of anything else. Honor is having the integrity to do what is best whilst being humble enough to admit faults and shortcomings, areas of improvement need not be viewed in a negative light as we are all works in progress.
This is a constant walk, it never ends, one step forward can be two steps back, sometimes even three, four, or five, which may be necessary to refocus and gain perspective in light of some new insight or some outdated mode of being/thinking.
Loosen the reigns a little, forget the unnecessary stuff, most of all, take in what your Teachers/Guides have to say, but most of all trust yourself; it is never about them and even less about you, in some cases, but more about you in others.
Does something feel right, or is it causing injury? Be wary of those who do not really practice what they preach as they are only spouting rhetoric with no real understanding and zero practical knowledge. Maybe they have a little, by way of Self Defense and Combat? Does it apply to you? Through you? Does it even still apply to them?
Real respect begins in understanding and culminates in applying... Most do not have a grasp of what it means to truly apply as they continue to repeat rote training, as nauseam, without breaking any sort of mold into natural free flow.
Yes, honor teachings and traditions, but also honor your health and maintain your own integrity by questioning, constantly, even to the point of annoyance. If no answers are given and you are made to shut up then, it is likely, the one purporting to have those answers really has no answers at all.
This is not only misleading, but egotistical, and also harmful in the long run. Especially where the Arts of Mars or Martial Arts are involved.
People can get hurt or even killed with incorrect information and improper training and expectations.
There is no disrespect intended by asking questions and, if answers are found wanting, there is no shame in calling someone out on this.
If what they talk about is contradictory to the teachings purported by someone higher up the food chain there is also no shame in pointing this out either... Again, we are all works in progress and areas that need improvement are facts of life and should never be viewed negatively. Those with more experience that purport to be your Teacher/Guide should also maintain strict humility. It is a mutual path.
This may not be the case in some Eastern Countries and we should certainly respect our Elders who clearly have walked the Earth longer than we have, but true respect is never blind and true wisdom is open to learning, no matter where the lesson may come from.
Organizations tend to stagnate, styles tend to solidify, creating automatons is often a sure way to creating helpless people who will not understand what has happened when reality breaks them down and they find they are alone on that field with weapons that do nothing for them.
We can continue to maintain our histories and lineages, our obedience to Tradition and Etiquette, maybe these things deserve such devotion, maybe not, but do we truly act out of respect or do we merely act in a programmed fashion?
What does this truly say about our integrity, let alone are own power and spirit?
To begin, Training is automatically flawed, no amount of training is reality and no system holds the master key to success, no Teacher holds any ounce of the Secret Sauce... Save for reality and experience, the greatest and harshest of Teachers.
It is, true, however, that we do respond from our training and if said training is not adequate we may just find ourselves in a VERY bad spot.
What is missing? What is the point? What are hundreds of choreographed drills meant to teach you? Do they even have a reason to justify their existence? Is that lesson to move and flow naturally at varying distances whilst applying the principles you are learning? If so, is it your own natural way of moving or someone else’s?
Are they meant to teach you recovery from a blindside? How about escapes and counters? Are these even taught right away or are they saved as more ‘advanced?’
(There is no such thing and most techniques do not even exist beyond their utility as teaching and learning aids).
What is the history of a style? Is it mystical or badass? Meant to draw you in based on your expectations and pre-conceived notions formed from popular culture? Does it encourage this mindset or seek to break it? Hint, breaking it would not be a great marketing strategy in this line of work.
Karate itself is a Modern system... All of what we have are modern systems, takes on older things, and many of them have failed to remain true to the spirit they purport to possess by way of lineage and Tradition.
None of them were battlefield tested and none of them are truly ‘Warrior’ Arts in that sense of the term.
Would you require your soldiers to train in something that takes years to grasp, let alone apply? No. You would want your Soldiers battle ready from the start... Let Mastery come later for those that survive.
It is not hard to train in that way and there are really very few things a person needs to know in order to become battle ready... The rest is just mental and physical conditioning to ensure that a person has the necessary stamina and fortitude to handle combat.
Looking at your Teacher. Can this be said about them? Do they maintain such a discipline in themselves? If not, how can they instill this in you? How can they provide you with the tools necessary to maintain said discipline?
If it is an enriched and fulfilling life path they are offering rather than a combative approach (The Way, or ‘Do’) then what does their own life look like? Are they successful of their own accord or do they count on the income provided by their student base to keep them afloat whilst living a life in shambles, maintaining unhealthy habits, and a character that speaks volumes to this whilst speaking words that seem wise, yet merely dressed in silk for consumption?
Everyone is flawed, but there should always be some sign that a person is trying to live the way they are claiming they can help you live or, at least, are able to handle themselves in the way they claim to be able to help you handle yourself.
This is not meant to be disrespectful, just real, because we have very little of that in this day and age of branding for a marketing niche... Nothing wrong with that, until there IS something wrong with it and people get hurt, lives get destroyed.
Friday, January 31, 2020
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
A Word On The Way.
What does it mean to walk the road less traveled? I know, in some instances, in others I have no clue and on those things I do not speak, I cannot speak, I do not have the understanding, experience, or wisdom to speak... The correct questions have not been properly formulated.
Most people look at Karate from a surface perspective, they see punching, kicking, blocking, belts, Gi, bowing, Japanese terminology, and most view it disparagingly as something not particularly practical and more suitable for training Children for character building, with the Children rarely getting beyond certain points toward any real understanding.
It has been told to me that Karate does not include certain things... Why have I previously written on, and touched upon those things it was not supposed to include then?
Certain perspectives, to me, simply do not add up, thus I question those perspectives, it is in my nature to do so and I am seldom shy about doing such things.
I have been down many rabbit holes in my day seeking deeper understanding of the Art I have come to love, the Art that has helped me so much, with so much (not all of those being life situations, but actual combative situations).
I have met and trained with many great people with deep knowledge and many people with VERY big egos and only superficial knowledge who seem to hate and look down upon anyone else outside their circle.
Much of this has caused me to question the whole thing, much has been cast into doubt, wrestling through all this I find my own way forward and learn quite a bit about myself in the process.
Anymore I call people out on their crap because it is blatant and, sure, I come across as an asshole in quite a few instances, but when it comes to the Art and actual experience, there are very few people I have come to trust.
I am not all about Organizations or Hierarchy, those are artificial, rank, too, is artificial. Real experience shines through in the training, in the way a person moves, in what and how they apply as far as principles are concerned, these aspects do not lie.
When I am in a formal setting I will respect the niceties that are in place and observe etiquette, even deferring to those with less experience and higher rank, which is, in most instances, the norm.
The obvious never lies though, the truth is blatant in the training, in the moment, reality speaks volumes about people and people tend not to see this.... Or they do not WANT to see this.
Stuck on the proper way to move at a specific angle with no real reason as to WHY backing up what they are saying... The two inch Sensei, moving your hand two inches with no explanation, yet maintaining this is correct, that is something I could never get behind.
What is the purpose? Alignment usually tends to be the case, but this is seldom explained and, when it is, seldom to any real satisfying degree.
To date, in my nearly thirty years experience with all this, I have met THREE people who could offer satisfying explanations for corrections like this... Three people. There are likely more out there, sure, but I have not met them thus far.
I have been working my Karate from a Nafuadi perspective since around 2005, when I met one of those people who provided very deep explanations, introducing me to concepts like Chinkuchi, Atifa, Muchimidi, proper Shime testing, and proper use of the Makiwara in training.
Stacking according to their teaching of Sanchin Kata as the primary Kata, this changed my Karate and really provided some perspective that made it much deeper.
Furthermore, this really opened me up to a different perspective; namely Strategy and Tactics, backed by Principles rather than 'technique' based training or, as others would call it, 'lines rather than points.'
Simple things like 'Crossing the T' for escapes, which consisted of simply moving a shoulder across the opponent's centerline to break the hold... Which worked every time in every instance I had found.
Other aspects, like 'taking the center,' and 'disrupting the spine,' and 'Kuzushi.'
All of these are extremely effective and have very specific functions, but infinite ways through which they can each be applied, so it is important not to get caught up in various points along the way, save for deeper study on the mechanical principles backing them.
I have not seen this level of Strategic thinking in any other form or school of Karate. I have seen it in Jujitsu and Judo, as well as a specific approach to Aikido that is almost along the lines of Aiki-jutsu, but not in Karate itself... Even in my own Organization this seems to be missing in many respects, save for a few who Teach from this type of perspective, and they happen to have been exposed to the same person and the same principles of which I speak AND had explored these much deeper for much longer than I had.
It is easy to see why many would not view Karate in a very positive light, considering most end up feeling a lot is missing, and there are many people out there who purport to have those aspects, yet few actually do.
This is in relation to Karate. In other instances, regarding Okinawan Arts, I have met a person who DOES have knowledge akin to that which has been outlined above, from a different perspective and with much deeper experience, it is incredible to behold, honestly, and there is A LOT there to study that could take two lifetimes to understand, even getting a particularly late start in life on that as I have.
As tends to happen, though, hierarchy gets in the way. People whom serve in administrative capacity tend to over reach and block the way to deeper understanding for people not particularly interested in positions or rank at all.
I could care less about rank, I hate the concept as a whole, I hate the concept of titles and positions, it drives me insane that THESE are the things upon which people tend to focus rather than what is REALLY important.
I had remained outside of the Karate Organization to which I originally belonged for a long time. I had not tested for rank in twenty years and the last time I tested was because I was told I had to. My original question to testing was 'what if I don't test,' to which I was told 'then there is the door.'
At that time I had been a Brown Belt for three years and I was perfectly content just studying what I had because there was so much there to explore.
I returned to the Karate Organization a couple summers ago and attended National Convention, at which time I tested for the first time in twenty years, to the rank of Nidan, while others with maybe ten or eleven years experience were testing for much higher ranks. I did this out of respect for my Teacher's Teacher, not because it was something I wanted to do.
The rank is a piece of paper, it has sentimental value because of the individual that granted it, that is all, it does not mean I have any sort of knowledge or understanding, just that I showed up and performed to standard... In most cases I was called out for not doing things the standard way, I just grinned and nodded, tried it the way they showed, then, kept doing what I was doing because that is the understanding I had come to based on my own in depth studies of what I was doing... What I knew worked, and avoiding what didn't.
In my humble opinion there should not BE such a things as rank. There should only be experience and understanding, those who have it based on their honest to goodness efforts in study and practice, and those who do not, but are hungry to explore.
In my view one should only study one or two Kata in addition to Sanchin and Tensho, or even just Naihanchin Kata.... There should be no push to memorize choreographed drills unless there is a specific reason for doing so, one should explore the principles within the Kata which they are studying and look to applying the principles the Kata is imparting on a personal level. A Teacher can never give a person a skill, they have to discover this for themselves, the Teacher can guide through principles, but ultimately the Student will not be exactly like the Teacher and cannot apply in exactly the same way as the Teacher. This was never meant to be the way things were done.
In the end it does not matter who has memorized what; what matters is their level of understanding from a principles based perspective.
They can know twenty Kata and hundreds of drills, but do they really know anything at all? Sure, respect rank and position when you have to, but also offer up something to deepen that understanding and have the courage to call things out when they are contradictory to reality and make absolutely no sense.
Most people look at Karate from a surface perspective, they see punching, kicking, blocking, belts, Gi, bowing, Japanese terminology, and most view it disparagingly as something not particularly practical and more suitable for training Children for character building, with the Children rarely getting beyond certain points toward any real understanding.
It has been told to me that Karate does not include certain things... Why have I previously written on, and touched upon those things it was not supposed to include then?
Certain perspectives, to me, simply do not add up, thus I question those perspectives, it is in my nature to do so and I am seldom shy about doing such things.
I have been down many rabbit holes in my day seeking deeper understanding of the Art I have come to love, the Art that has helped me so much, with so much (not all of those being life situations, but actual combative situations).
I have met and trained with many great people with deep knowledge and many people with VERY big egos and only superficial knowledge who seem to hate and look down upon anyone else outside their circle.
Much of this has caused me to question the whole thing, much has been cast into doubt, wrestling through all this I find my own way forward and learn quite a bit about myself in the process.
Anymore I call people out on their crap because it is blatant and, sure, I come across as an asshole in quite a few instances, but when it comes to the Art and actual experience, there are very few people I have come to trust.
I am not all about Organizations or Hierarchy, those are artificial, rank, too, is artificial. Real experience shines through in the training, in the way a person moves, in what and how they apply as far as principles are concerned, these aspects do not lie.
When I am in a formal setting I will respect the niceties that are in place and observe etiquette, even deferring to those with less experience and higher rank, which is, in most instances, the norm.
The obvious never lies though, the truth is blatant in the training, in the moment, reality speaks volumes about people and people tend not to see this.... Or they do not WANT to see this.
Stuck on the proper way to move at a specific angle with no real reason as to WHY backing up what they are saying... The two inch Sensei, moving your hand two inches with no explanation, yet maintaining this is correct, that is something I could never get behind.
What is the purpose? Alignment usually tends to be the case, but this is seldom explained and, when it is, seldom to any real satisfying degree.
To date, in my nearly thirty years experience with all this, I have met THREE people who could offer satisfying explanations for corrections like this... Three people. There are likely more out there, sure, but I have not met them thus far.
I have been working my Karate from a Nafuadi perspective since around 2005, when I met one of those people who provided very deep explanations, introducing me to concepts like Chinkuchi, Atifa, Muchimidi, proper Shime testing, and proper use of the Makiwara in training.
Stacking according to their teaching of Sanchin Kata as the primary Kata, this changed my Karate and really provided some perspective that made it much deeper.
Furthermore, this really opened me up to a different perspective; namely Strategy and Tactics, backed by Principles rather than 'technique' based training or, as others would call it, 'lines rather than points.'
Simple things like 'Crossing the T' for escapes, which consisted of simply moving a shoulder across the opponent's centerline to break the hold... Which worked every time in every instance I had found.
Other aspects, like 'taking the center,' and 'disrupting the spine,' and 'Kuzushi.'
All of these are extremely effective and have very specific functions, but infinite ways through which they can each be applied, so it is important not to get caught up in various points along the way, save for deeper study on the mechanical principles backing them.
I have not seen this level of Strategic thinking in any other form or school of Karate. I have seen it in Jujitsu and Judo, as well as a specific approach to Aikido that is almost along the lines of Aiki-jutsu, but not in Karate itself... Even in my own Organization this seems to be missing in many respects, save for a few who Teach from this type of perspective, and they happen to have been exposed to the same person and the same principles of which I speak AND had explored these much deeper for much longer than I had.
It is easy to see why many would not view Karate in a very positive light, considering most end up feeling a lot is missing, and there are many people out there who purport to have those aspects, yet few actually do.
This is in relation to Karate. In other instances, regarding Okinawan Arts, I have met a person who DOES have knowledge akin to that which has been outlined above, from a different perspective and with much deeper experience, it is incredible to behold, honestly, and there is A LOT there to study that could take two lifetimes to understand, even getting a particularly late start in life on that as I have.
As tends to happen, though, hierarchy gets in the way. People whom serve in administrative capacity tend to over reach and block the way to deeper understanding for people not particularly interested in positions or rank at all.
I could care less about rank, I hate the concept as a whole, I hate the concept of titles and positions, it drives me insane that THESE are the things upon which people tend to focus rather than what is REALLY important.
I had remained outside of the Karate Organization to which I originally belonged for a long time. I had not tested for rank in twenty years and the last time I tested was because I was told I had to. My original question to testing was 'what if I don't test,' to which I was told 'then there is the door.'
At that time I had been a Brown Belt for three years and I was perfectly content just studying what I had because there was so much there to explore.
I returned to the Karate Organization a couple summers ago and attended National Convention, at which time I tested for the first time in twenty years, to the rank of Nidan, while others with maybe ten or eleven years experience were testing for much higher ranks. I did this out of respect for my Teacher's Teacher, not because it was something I wanted to do.
The rank is a piece of paper, it has sentimental value because of the individual that granted it, that is all, it does not mean I have any sort of knowledge or understanding, just that I showed up and performed to standard... In most cases I was called out for not doing things the standard way, I just grinned and nodded, tried it the way they showed, then, kept doing what I was doing because that is the understanding I had come to based on my own in depth studies of what I was doing... What I knew worked, and avoiding what didn't.
In my humble opinion there should not BE such a things as rank. There should only be experience and understanding, those who have it based on their honest to goodness efforts in study and practice, and those who do not, but are hungry to explore.
In my view one should only study one or two Kata in addition to Sanchin and Tensho, or even just Naihanchin Kata.... There should be no push to memorize choreographed drills unless there is a specific reason for doing so, one should explore the principles within the Kata which they are studying and look to applying the principles the Kata is imparting on a personal level. A Teacher can never give a person a skill, they have to discover this for themselves, the Teacher can guide through principles, but ultimately the Student will not be exactly like the Teacher and cannot apply in exactly the same way as the Teacher. This was never meant to be the way things were done.
In the end it does not matter who has memorized what; what matters is their level of understanding from a principles based perspective.
They can know twenty Kata and hundreds of drills, but do they really know anything at all? Sure, respect rank and position when you have to, but also offer up something to deepen that understanding and have the courage to call things out when they are contradictory to reality and make absolutely no sense.
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