Karate - A Positive Note

While Karate may not be what it has been made out to be, this does not mean that it has not, or cannot, be utilized for something better.

I may not have all the answers, but a Student CAN use the framework to find the rest AND learn something not readily addressed on the Dojo Floor.

In this way the answers are always on the floor.

How the Karate student applies themselves, based on their discipline, spells the difference between success and failure.

Whether that be in Self Defense, Shop Class, or a Board Room Meeting, how they apply themselves is everything.

There is carry over in all aspects, despite what anyone says or writes.

Those who are successful in negotiation tend to be pretty aware outside that board room.

Those with training tend to gain confidence and rise as Leaders in their field, despite being the lowest on the proverbial totem pole.

I am a Leader in Security and head the Security Force on a Government Site, I started as an Officer with some pretty strange cases.

I am now sitting in on executive meetings, identifying areas of Security Concern, handling Client Concerns, working towards better Security Practices and identifying problem areas while handling finances for the account.

Anyone can do any of this with the right mindset, but more, with the right foundation.

Foundation is key, but to rise above and put it to work, that is the lock.

 ck.

Karate in Reality.

What does Kata Saifa tell you about collecting antibiotics from the source?

What does Kata Seiyunchin tell you about skinning animals or setting up a shelter?

These are not brought up as realistic examples, they are meant to be extreme examples of how Karate does not address everything.

Kids are impressionable and will often accept the answers they are given. Karate Sensei like to come off as all knowing and deserving of respect.

Karate Sensei do not know everything and, in my experience, even fail at the basics, like marriage.

They may have the answers to violence, or maybe not, they may have the answers to success in modern life, or maybe not, but if they claim to have the answers to everything, you need to put on your tin foil cap and listen with skepticism.

One Karate Teacher I knew was a womanizer and alcoholic, he had his leg amputated because he couldn’t get his act together, but his family benefited from his enterprise.

In the end, he lost his life, but his family endured… So one might say he was smart and selfless in that regard.

I see another Karate Organization ripping itself apart while it’s’ founder is alive.

That person named someone else as Chief Instructor, but when his own monetary value was decreased he decided to break away, he forbid anyone in his old Organization to use even his picture and formed a new Organization based in Okinawa, because that is where the money is, and with his name… Despite having cut his own Teacher out of his named Lineage.

Karate has always been a place of questionable character.

Toguchi was an alcoholic chain smoker, Higa was an alcoholic Chain Smoker, money is money and people make it where they see opportunity.

Karate was, once and still is, the study of Police,Thugs, and Gangsters. 

Not the art of character development. That is a marketing ploy of our modern era, based on movies.

Karate is also effective. Based on the fact that GSP, Bad Rutten, Machida, and even Connor McGregor utilizing it to gain fame, money, and titles.

Karate is not what it seems and is certainly not an art meant for children.

Reality Over Fantasy.

Our Karate, we are told, is battlefield tested, it is ancient.

Most don’t buy that crap even today. 

Karate is a twentieth Century invention and we are told it is based on a mix between Chinese Quan Fa and Okinawan Ti.

What does this even mean?

Karate, as our bias would have us believe, is central to trade and cultural exchange between the Okinawans and Chinese.

It would seem that more cultural exchange would be focused on actual trade and other things, like education.

Maybe not so much, but the Chinese felt it necessary to send their performance artists and low level dissidents than their actual Military heads.

Seems a practice that has continued to this day.

Jumping forward a bit… Why would an occupied country want to give up their secrets to those they view as an occupying foreign force?

They wouldn’t, if they were smart, and even today there is a movement in Okinawa that views both Japan AND America as occupying foreign forces.

Karate at its’ present stage, as it is presently taught, is exactly what it is meant to be, benign.

Although there are many MMA practitioners who count on Karate as their base, from Bas Rutten, GSP, Machida, and even Connor McGregor… They show Karate has effective roots, but they miss out on the entirety of the effectiveness of Karate.

I have never met Jan Dam in person and am hardly an expert on Ti, I left Jan’s group due to an Illness and the expensiveness of his seminar, but Jan introduced me to another side of the equation.

Thanks to modern technology I was able to learn from this man.

Ti is not Karate and Karate is NOT Ti. The flow of entry has a place and a study, it has nothing to do with technique or set Bunkai. It has nothing to do with X versus y answering with z.

No. That is not how boxing does it either, no getting hung up on techniques, forms, or how it SHOULD look because violence is never calculated, it is always messy.

This falls short as well.

Do you learn to use your window reflection? Are you trained to hear the extra sounds around you? Do you look for extra shadows, are you trained to hold your head on a swivel? 

There is even a smell. Do you know what it is?

How about the timeframe of violent interactions?

Two to three movements. Kata is a whole slew of movements. What about the variables? The struggle? Where will you flow to next?

Violence is the game. Prevention should be the name.

Most schools focus on when prevention fails, they do not address anything else. Head block? Failed self defense. Reverse punch? Failed self defense.

What do you do when your assailant doesn’t just stand still?

Also a failure.

Fairbairne is a good starting point. Forget styles and Organizations if they do not have your well being at heart.

Rank means nothing if you cannot defend yourself.

Identity

The more I discover the more I realize how little I truly know and, more than that, I don’t know what I don’t know.

The romanticization of the wise sage-like Karate Sensei, Kung Fu Sifu, or what have you, is a fantasy.

No one has all the answers and while the answers might be on the floor, what is the floor?

Can one learn Carpentry or the skills of an Electrician on the floor?

They can certainly learn the focus necessary to obtain such knowledge as well as strategic methods of approaching such studies, but no, the floor cannot teach you to be a Carpenter or Electrician.

Identifying solely as a Martial Artist is fine, but many cannot obtain a balance necessary to live a good life if that is their sole focus.

They can learn to be good parents, good citizens, good Leaders, good Students, good Mentors, but they have to actually go out into the world and do the work.

When being a Carpenter, be a Carpenter during the timeframe you have to be a Carpenter and then, when you get home, be at home, be a good Parent and Mentor to your children, be a good Husband or Wife.

I am still working on this.

I am NOT just a Martial Artist. I am a writer, sometimes (and not necessarily a good one), and Artist, a Father, a Mentor, a Leader in my field, a Husband, an Uncle, an advocate sometimes.

We all wear many hats, Martial Arts is a small part of that, but it should be foundational for how we approach things, how we execute tactics and strategy when tackling things.

It is not life, it is just a way to approach life that gives us tools.

Good for thought.

Book Review: Book Not Named

Running on a lot of coffee, vape, and rage today…

Reading a book that someone recommended I read by someone we mutually knew.

Not necessarily someone I liked when they were alive, although at first they were fine, but as time went on I got to know just what type of a person they were.

That has nothing to do with the book, however, as I have found insightful books by absolutely dreadful people in the past.

This book, however, was clearly written by a, then, bitter old man succumbed to absolute Nihilism regarding their own life, circumstance, and some of the life decisions that may have been the roots.

There are some good points in this work, such as finding a balance between life and Martial Arts, that Martial Arts are not life, but can be a tool for improving life and facing things head on… Which the author did not do.

There is also the point about the evolution of training as one ages since age changes us all and we are not as young as we used to be… It MUST change and evolve.

The author seems to have learned this at a point that was too late and they were certainly bitter about that.

The author comes off as some sort of authority on Martial Arts when, in truth, they had only been training a couple years longer than myself.

My own Sensei gave them glowing praise as a Budoka, but the author trashed my Teacher, and their own, at any chance they got.

The take away of the book, what little of it there is, did not require so many pages and is certainly not original to the book itself.

The ramblings of a bitter person who could not cope or accept the circumstances of their life and face it accordingly… Which is fine, maybe the book was their final attempt to cope, or, more likely, a means to make more money and gain more of an air of authority on a subject they were clearly not following enough to speak as such.

Anger and bitterness are brutal bedmates, yes, we all face this at one point or another, but it is never anyone else’s fault but our own.

I am forty, I don’t train like a twenty year old. It is THAT simple.

I can certainly recommend this book, but I am not going to for the simple fact that one should not have to pay for common sense… Common sense is free.

I am not going to name the book or the author either as that would be disrespectful since they have since passed on from this world.

What I can say is that I hope they finally found peace.