Spartacus Maximus

I use an old treatment used by fishermen and bare-fist boxers. Vinegar, salt and hot water. Soaking my hands in this for a few minutes and rubbing it in makes the skin tougher and more resistant. After drying off, I get rid of the smell by gently washing with a good liquid hand soap.

Unless there is pain or sensitivity or reduced mobility there is nothing wrong. Mine are now permanently discoloured and even on the best of days they are noticeably red where the skin has thickened into a callous. Sometimes they appear purplish usually for a few hours after I finish hitting the board. This is due to bruising just like anywhere else on the body. You can and will get bruising on your knuckles if you hit hard objects. This is especially common when starting makiwara training because the skin is still soft.

The fixation on titles such as "master" or "grand master" is the result of Western culture's distortion an misinterpretation of foreign concepts that have no exact equivalent. One might refer to a highly skilled and notable martial artist as Master, but it is out of respect for achievements. Usually this person has passed on long ago. In their native culture the titles are never used as a form of address. I have never ever heard an Okinawan or a Japanese call his martial arts instructor anything other than "sensei". I certainly never called mine "Hanshi" or " Kyoshi". Everywhere else as far as I have heard and observed, students call their instructor by the local term for "teacher". In European systems, terms such as "master-at-arms" exist but students never called their instructors anything other than "Sir". With this in mind, insisting on titles they way some Western(mostly) dojos/clubs and groups do is very strange to me and seems very pompous.

As one someone who lived and trained in Okinawa, I can second what you say. Okinawan people are known for being culturally very easy going, friendly and hospitable towards strangers. While this is true it is unfortunately the reason why okinawans can get very embarrassed or vexed if it seems to them that someone is taking advantage or abusing of their hospitable nature. Experience living among cultures different from my own taught me that it is always a good idea to inform oneself about the formalities and protocol first. An outsider who does this will be appreciated for showing genuine interest. Better still is to ask for explanation on what is expected and confirmation when one is unsure. An outsider who does this shows the will to fit in and will usually be accepted and respected for it. This shows the outsider is genuinely concerned about what is acceptable in the host group and it is the best way to pay back the host for all the hospitality and efforts to bring in the outsider It is never a bad idea to learn about the protocol/formalities when one is new somewhere. It is better still to ask about it when one is unsure what to do. Nobody can reasonably expect an outsider to know what took an insider years or a lifetime to learn. It is far worse to insult because one does not care than to embarrass because one does not know.

Children need and crave examples and role models on whom to base their own behaviours. Any parent worthy of that responsibility knows that children are constantly observing and listening. Especially when adults think they are not doing it! The very best thing for them is for somebody to show them that their behaviours are acceptable or approved. The best and only sure method to get children to behave properly and follow instructions is to show them. If children see adult students training seriously, following instructions and acting cooperatively in a respectful manner, that is what they will do. There is very little need to tell them explicitly if children are put directly next to or between adults who are doing what is expected, right and acceptable. Before applying this, it is most important to ensure that the adults you solicit for a presence among the children are fully cooperative with whoever is leading AND each other. Once the children start to improve, reinforce every and any positive change. At the end of their time, praise each one for something such as: Little A practised very hard today Little B was very helpful Little C listened very well etc... Add an honest smile and a good handshake or bow. Small things such as this go a long way and tell the children what is expected.

Cases like these are a reminder that unfortunately a high rank, skills and a title does not confer a good sense of ethics and a moral character. If a person has little of either to begin with, and is impulsive; then that person will inevitably end up in some sort of unpleasant situation. Being involved in any way with such a person is always a risk because such a person behaves without thinking or evaluating the consequences for others in their inner and outer social circles.

The very term of 'stance' is misleading at best. There are no such things as stances in martial arts. What came to be referred to as 'stances' are all transitions from one movement to another. The various stances are the result of a shift at the point where the transition is complete and the feet are in the best possible position to deliver a strike with power. This not unlike a still photograph as opposed to a video. For stance practise to be beneficial it is a better idea to do it in motion instead of just the beginning and end because the transition and weight shift are the main point. Without correct transitions there is no balance and without balance it is impossible to put power into strikes. With this in mind, it is not really necessary to train stances in separate exercises or drills. Kata or forms are ideal for this precisely because even the most basic ones will contain parts with a series of stances or changing from one stance to another. Simply perform the kata while focussing attention on how, where and when the weight shift should be done for each transition. To increase the emphasis further, one might perform a kata without the hand techniques.

Training has been a part of my life for a very long time. I do it at home as part of my daily routine so separating it from the home environment is not something I am willing to change. I go to a dojo to train with my own sensei, but my home is my personal dojo. Maybe it is easier to teach one's own children before teaching anyone else in a separate place away from home. I reckon if one can successfully teach one's own children, it would give valuable insight when teaching other people.

Spitting on somebody is a universal insult and one of the most serious acts of aggression short of actually striking. It is such a primitive expression that the behaviour is also very common among animals. It is one of those rare gestures that is considered an insult and provokation to fight by every existing human culture group. The reasoning behind considering it battery or assault is that spitting, especially in another person's face, is usually followed by a physical attack. Therefore it is reasonable to expect being attacked if one is spit at and respond accordingly. Spitting in someone's face and hitting while the victim is wiping it off is one of the oldest tricks ever used to attack or provoke a fight. If someone is close enough to spit in my face, he is close enough to hit me and has aleady invaded my personal space. This is never a good sign and letting any stranger get that close is a very dangerous mistake.

Fortunately for me, I still have a few years to ponder this question because my children are still too young. I have certainly no intention of pushing or forcing my interest onto them. However I am determined to do everything I possibly can to get them interested and encourage them to try it. What I wonder about the most are the cases that were successful because I know that those are not the norm. When I think about people like those mentioned by Sensei8, I cannot help wondering how they taught their children and how that affected the way they got along as family. How are so-called family systems started or maintained over generations? Is that still possible in this day and age?

Everyone has heard stories about those who were taught martial arts by their father, grandfather or other close family member. I often wonder how teaching my own child would work out and how it would or should be different from teaching someone who is not my family. I would really like to know if anyone has been taught by a close relative and also if anyone is teaching their own child. How is it different from teaching regular students? What works and what doesn't ?

Considering the attention spans of average 5 to 7 year olds, a full hour of anything is pushing too hard. Group size is also a factor and my experience is that young children work best in groups of under 8 if the instructor has no other adults assisting. A general rule when teaching children under 12 is that everything must be made into some sort of game. How this can be done is entirely up to the imagination of the instructor. Another principle is to break down each technique into their most basic steps or components and teach those slowly one at a time until the child students can effectively put them together.

The kind of situation described here is not unique to karate because it happens anywhere and everywhere men and women find themselves interacting in a social group where the man has a role of authority or influence. No good can come of this even if the woman accepts the advances because the social relationship is changed to the point of no return to what was existing before. The man in question and the woman can no longer continue their roles without emotions interfering. The best advice and solution where there is this type of break with ethics is to part ways and start over elsewhere. Go find another instructor or dojo. One should never try to seek intimate emotional relationships with a person directly above or below oneself in a social group. Especially if the social relationship is one of authority or influence!

My reasons are many and common to many who start martial arts as children. The majority of my heroes and role models were martial artists. To deal with bullying Because I had no interest in any of the popular team sports

Often what is meant by a lack of aggression is that the mind and senses are not following the actions. To do this requires focus and a very high level of concentration. This is the driving force without which all techniques would be meaningless and unusable. The purpose of mental training in martial arts is to develop, cultivate and control the natural sense of danger. By using the mind to visualize it is possible to produce the response to danger without actually being in any danger. The aim is to mentally create a danger that is real enough to provoke the same actions and reactions. Doing this provides an object on which to concentrate and focus. This is the first step to becoming able to use aggressivity as an advantage. Aggressivity alone is very dangerous and it will always fail sooner or later. Only when it is controlled, measured and used with good judgement does it turn into an advantage. This idea can be explained in many ways, but I like to call it the "one chance total commitment principle" When training one must perform each and every move as if one had only one chance and without a second of hesitation. Defense and attack are the same single move and the outcome depends entirely on that one single move. When one moves, it must always be forward, always advancing with focussed determination.

Unless one is training in Japan or under a Japanese sensei, I would think Japanese terminolgy is a matter of choice on the part of whomever is in charge. With very few exceptions what one hears is a very distorted rendering of Japanese tinted with the accents of the main language spoken. This sounds even stranger to me since I have learned to speak the language but I cannot blame anyone for not knowing correct Japanese. Correct karate is the focus of training, not learning a complicated and exotic foreign language. Anything beyond familiarizing with Japanese terms is not necessary for the average karate student. Counting to 10, names of blocks, kicks and punches is quite enough.

My aspirations to one day teach what I am now learning have not yet been reached, but I can answer the question from a student's perspective. In the very beginning I chose my dojo and instructor because they had a very convenient location between my school and home. Much later as my interests for martial arts took me to East Asia I chose my instructor because he taught the karate I had been learning and had an almost ledgendary reputation. I chose my present instructor after buying and watching several times the DVDs he made. After years of trying to make sense of kata I had finally found a sensei who knew and taught all the details I had been missing. I knew nothing else about this sensei except that he taught what I wanted to learn. It was well worth the hour and half commute.

I know what that's like Sensei8. I still struggle to make sense of what my instructor says even though I have learned all the terminology in Japanese as well as a functional fluency in that language. There is always the need to compensate with more practical demonstration.

Strangely I have never come across this debate since I first set foot in a karate dojo. It may have sounded odd and somewhat exotic to use Japanese terms in the beginning but it was always quickly accepted without a second thought. Japanese terms were heard and repeated often enough that anyone would eventually know them. Most Dojos use Japanese terms in this way and it is a good idea to expose students to the original terminology but I cannot agree with the idea of making it mandatory requirement. Knowing Japanese may be helpful but it is irrelevant to learning skills. If a student knows how to block does it really matter if said student forgets what the block is called in Japanese?

Years ago when I trained in Okinawa there were different names for the Passai kata and every dojo used either SHO and DAI or Itosu and Matsumura. I found it very confusing because I originally learned them as SHO and DAI. It took me a while to figure out and remember which as which. I also remember losing several points at a tournament because I mixed up the names. To add to my disenchantment with tournaments in Okinawa and in general, it was later explained to me by several of the big cheeses that there was an unspoken bias against Shorin ryu styles. So much so that finishing in the top three with a Shorin ryu kata was considered an exploit and was only possible with a spectacular and flawless presentation. Nevertheless I reluctantly entered and stubbornly presented my favourite Passai kata because my teacher was happy with it and thought I should do it. He didn't care if I won and neither did I. All that mattered was that he was satisfied that I had learned it from him well.

I see the use of Japanese language terms as a choice by the main instructor. It should be based in the context of training and dojo environment. As long as techniques are taught correctly and effectively, the language used to identify them is irrelevant. What matters is that the students understand the instructor and that the instructor can communicate and demonstrate. Having said this, the best argument for keeping Japanese is that it facilitates exchanges and discussion by having a basic common terminology. Re-naming everything in another language would certainly be confusing and quite difficult because even within the same language there would be variations. Knowledge of Japanese terminology should be on a need to know basis. Instructors, prospective instructors and anyone who expects to have any kind of exchange with other karate people from outside their circle should know enough to facilitate communication. Personally, I have had numerous exchanges through karate with people from different nations with whom I shared my interest. In my case the environment made it necessary and practical to know Japanese terminology. Later my interest in karate brought me to source, where again by vital necessity I had to learn the language itself. It remains useful even now because it is the only one my instructor speaks. Not everyone is inclined to learn foreign terminology. It can even make the physical movements more confusing for some people especially those who learn best by listening(auditory learners). Encouraging students to learn Japanese terms is fine but making it mandatory may be counter-productive.

After a while boredom outweighs any outside motivation to continue. At a certain point the motivation to continue training must come from within and not be attached to superficial things. People forget or dont understand that repetitiveness and tedium are inherent parts of martial arts. Out of all the Dan level student active when I reached shodan, I am one of 3 out of 25 still training. Nobody but the most dedicated, nay, obsessively determined people are willing to continue long after there are no new belts to gain or new kata to learn. How many would never start if they were told that they were expected to learn and practise only basic techniques for an entire year? Nothing but the basics. Every day. For hours.

Going by the only information given , it is obvious that the instructor values the student and has good reasons to be concerned. An instructor who only sees students as a source of income would try everything to motivate them to stay and keep paying. One who truly cares about a student's skill progress would be more concerned about the student's losing heart to learn and giving up after so much effort. For an instructor there is nothing more satisfying than knowing that a student is still training and progressing after parting ways. There is no better proof that teaching was not wasted effort, no better token of thanks. The average person who takes up martial arts quit. Quitting is the norm but quitters are soon forgot, soon replaced and never remembered. Instructors know this well which is why they are twice happy and proud when the see one or two out of ten who are still there to show that alll the effort to pass on hard earned skills will not have been in vain.

People like tangible symbols because they are convienient to show and easy to recognize within a group. By nature we constantly seek to know where we and others around us are in relation to one another. Martial arts ranks are just another system of symbols created at a time when teaching large groups made it necessary. What was originally intended as a rough progress marker has been turned into a status symbol of power or a commodity to be bought and sold in a neat package. Those who use rank to promote and advertise themselves and their business are just exploiting a status symbol to their advantage. These types of individuals give the ranking system so much importance and attention because it is the basis of their entire status. Their position among others as welll as their personal wealth and prestige is dependant on it. From this, it is a short and easy step away from fraud, misrepresentation and other rather dishonest practices. However it is not fair to deny another man the pursuit of comfort or even wealth. Life is short and time is better spent forging one's own character and improving one self rather than in the futile attempt of changing others. Modesty is often the mark of true skill and someone who is confident in these will not need to put any emphasis on rank because such a person understands that skills developed over years of diligent training and practise speak louder than any belt.

People who can or choose to dedicate all their free time to training are indeed very rare. The sacrifices and determination is admirable but it is important to know that the average student is, for one reason or another, unable or unwilling to make certain compromises. Balancing work, socializing and family time is not a simple task and requires good organization skills. Everyone must deal with this including the instructor. That is why the best way to cope is to train and practise as much as you can, whenever you can.