Winds of Change.

 It has been some time since the last post was made. 

My focus has been elsewhere these days, as it is certain the focus of most out there has been on other, more trying matters.

Still training regularly, but the poi t of writing the same things over and over again just felt useless, meaningless, and to be ho est my heart was not in it.

Even now I cannot even watch videos or read books on the subject, let alone write, but still I train as I always have. The media just seem to say the same thing over and over again from differing perspectives that reach the same conclusions.

Then one finds the pointless bickering back and forth over this and that, useless if you ask me, train more, talk less.

Then there are the formal classes where one shows up in Karate Gi, bows, counts in Japanese, refers to the Teacher and Seniors by Japanese Titles and follows customs in the Dojo set down by an Imperialistic Japanese Mindset and Culture that is borderline cultish... Something completely foreign to Okinawan Karate. Even so-called Okinawan 'Masters' that teach abroad have adopted this, some to a pretty extreme level.

I have been teaching my children, on and off, since the time they started walking.

My Daughter has experience in Genten No Ti and Toguchi-ha Goju Ryu Karate, among other things I feel the need to pass on.

It is more of a Family thing on my part.

She recently started attending Karate Classes at a local health and fitness center taught by a Senior Student of Teruo Chinen.

She seems to be taking to it pretty well and I felt it would be a good experience for her to be around peers who also train, but I find myself scoffing at some of the things they do... Focusing more on how things appear rather than how they work, or why.

I am not going to criticize the way things are done as this is how it has been done for some time in Karate. I have also trained with the late Mr. Chinen as well as the Teacher of this class, Bob Davies.

I did learn some valuable things, albeit I ceased attending classes under Bob Davies as I found them to be contrary to my own training even though they are also training Goju Ryu.

It was not so much the main body of what they teach that was contrary, but all the side drills they impliment, which seem counter intuitive and would not truly serve me in good stead... It was more a question of practicality than anything else.

Mr. Chinen was also very strict in his teaching, perhaps too strict, whereas Mr. Davies is not, perhaps a bit too lax.

Even now there seems to persist a cult of personality surrounding Mr. Chinen, whom has made some very questionable claims in the past... A great Karateka he was, but he was not all that he claimed to be and really had set this Organization up around himself, marketing his heritage and embellishing with claims that simply were not true.

One could say this about nearly every Karate 'Master' however, many are or were truly colorful personalities that knew how to market themselves and behaved quite contrary to the morals they purported to be central to Karate.

It is a good thing to train Karate and, I feel, Karate is outgrowing these colorful old 'Masters' (read flawed human beings) as Students become Teachers in their own right and actually follow, as best they can, the morality picked up through the Karate framework. Maybe, maybe not.

One could get the same from any endeavor, be it MMA or even working wood or some other skill/art.

Karate, itself, is not what many take it to be.

It is mordern, a 20th Century creation marketed, now, as a sport and, before, as a physical activity within the Okinawan School system.

Tode was different, even more, Ti is different. Though one can contain the other, the latter is not contained in the fore.

So the romanticization of Karate is unwarranted as those who propagated it up to this point were its' flawed creators during a time of assimilation to Japanese Imperial Culture.

That does not mean it has no value and lacks practicality, quite the contrary, it has been effective for many people in many situations and has produced very good and upright people who, in turn, pass it on in many different ways.

So, I still feel it is a good experience for my daughter as it was, and is, a good experience for me.

It helped me overcome many challenges in life, it has been useful on a practical level, and it has allowed me to meet some truly great people.

Ti is another level to that and I truly feel one must first become proficient in Karate before even thinking about learning Ti, one is not the other, but there is some overlap... When one learns Karate in order to forget it.

My hope is that my Daughter learns, keeps learning, then forgets. There is no need to become so wrapped up in all of this that it becomes who you think you are.

It is only a root aspect of life meant to help one improve all other aspects of life, it is NOT who you are, just something you do. Nothing special at all.

I do not talk about Karate or Martial Arts with very many people. Some might say I am not open about it at all outside that circle, despite having been training for thirty years, I have done other things for much longer.

Sometimes I feel embarassed by it when people put me on the spot and I want nothing to do with it. When my wife brings up teaching my Children more regularly I change the subject... Then, after time has passed, I go and teach them something.

This is partially due to the view that Karate is only for children, so it is not really looked upon seriously in an adult conversation, and partly due to my knowing that much of it should not necessarily be taught to children without good moral grounding first.

I don't do rank, I don't really do formality, and I do teach in some very indirect ways... Sometimes my children do not even know they are being taught, and this has helped them become better little people. At some point they have to leave the nest though.

Hopefully I have armed them with a good moral compass, a good example, and a good bullshit detector.