chickadee

To my knowledge, there are no posted rules. That was exactly what I did: trained on my own while Sensei was overseeing the other two students. I have no problem with training on my own (I can easily find what to work on to fill the whole class), my question was whether that's what is expected from me. And from yours and other responses I gather that, yes, that would be a usual expectation but it might be a good idea for me to talk to my Sensei anyway, if I'm being confused during the class by something. Sensei is a Caucasian born in America but he is replicating the teaching style of his own teachers who where Okinawan. Sometimes I wonder whether he is taking it too far, but I've never studied under a Japanese/Okinawan Sensei myself and gasshukus' environment is very different. Yes, this might be very much the case. He definitely was. Yes. I see this theory being applied in our dojo quite consistently. You are right. Looks like, in my confusion, I'm overthinking the whole thing. Your first post is as valuable to me as this one, thank you very much for your advice. I do agree there are problems with communication within our Dojo (have examples related to administrative and other stuff, not just on the floor), but on the Dojo floor I don't clearly understand where the line is between the communication being broken and the natural consequences of the traditional teaching style you described above. I'm training only 2-3 times a week. Karate is an important part of my life but it isn't the way of life for me. Sometimes I think, Sensei just isn't interested in students like me, who are not fully committed to karate. He doesn't mind when I come to the Dojo but doesn't really care either. I might be totally wrong, though. Don't know.*** Thinking more about it: is it really possible to practice karate as a hobby (like I do) for a long time? Maybe, one tries it and then has to either move on to other things, or become a real student?

I wouldn't call my feelings "uncomfortable"... Sometimes I get bewildered and confused, which isn't comfortable per se but there is no humiliation/hostility involved... I just don't know what is expected from me and what I should do. At work (and in life) I get situations like that all the time but there I know that by taking initiative and responsibility, even if my decisions aren't perfect, I wouldn't break any protocol or show disrespect to seniors: my workplace environment encourages people to act on their own and my life is after all my life... Dojo floor seems like a whole different matter. Not being able to figure out the etiquette/protocol is exactly my problem! I wish our school was bigger so I could observe other students in similar situations and "do as Romans do"... This is why I'm asking here on the forum: maybe, there is a protocol/etiquette about how to behave when Sensei is busy with other students and haven't given you any specific instructions but I'm just being in the dark (and as a result of my blunders invisible to my Sensei)!

I apologize for giving the wrong impression about my Sensei. He does give us instruction and corrections, just not in every class and not profusely. The modern Western culture is employing verbally based feedback loop as one of its major tools of social interaction and teaching. I've been raised and educated within this culture and I'm used to it. But as far as I understand, the traditional karate teaching style isn't like that (I'd be careful not to generalize to the Eastern culture as a whole, as I don't know it well enough). The verbally based feedback loop is very quick and rich in detail (definitely an advantage) but it often doesn't stick well with the listener, in some cases it's kind of forced down the student's throat to very little benefit. The "no talking" teaching style relies more on the internal feedback loop, when the student is carefully observing his teacher and is aware of himself and the results of his own actions. The teacher gives instructions/advice sparingly and only when the student is ready to internalize it... This is my general understanding of my Sensei's teaching approach. However being a through-and-through "talkie" I sometimes get confused by the lack of verbal communication and don't know what is expected from me. By the way, I've never heard Sensei shouting at people. Never. And I've been training with him for ten years. As for feeling uncomfortable... I don't know. Are we taking this hard path of karate training to feel comfortable about ourselves?

Yes, I like the exercise as well, especially the part where I think about transitioning from one technique to another as it puts together the technique and the footwork.

Hello! Sometimes there are situations in my karate training when I'm not sure about the expected behavior for me as a student. I don't know whether there is an established way of responding to those situations or whether they are specific to my Sensei's teaching style. I'll appreciate your thoughts and advice. Some background 1. My Sensei talks very little. There might be a whole class when he names an exercise and counts, and that's it. No explanations. No corrections. I do catch his eye on us now and then, but often he'd direct us to turn away from the mirrors and then you can see nobody, just focus on the count. 2. Our dojo is very small. Four regular students. Not uncommon to have only two or three students in a class for the night. 3. I've been repeatedly told off by Sensei for verbal communications during the class (things like explaining the current drill to my partner) so I'm now thorough afraid to open my mouth and ask him anything. Particular situation Yesterday we had three students present and I was the highest rank. At some point Sensei asked us to do Renzoku Bunkai but Paul didn't know it all, and Jim only knew the defense. Sensei told me to be the attacker against Jim, while Paul to follow the defense moves without a partner. After a few repetitions of bunkai, Jim and Paul swapped, and Jim was following my moves as an attacker without a partner. So far so good -- I knew what I was doing: helping the guys to learn (pacing it for them and stuff). But then Sensei told Jim to work on Renzoku with Paul and gave no instructions to me. None. Not a single word. Thus my question: what am I supposed to do at this point? I did a few repetitions of Renzoku without a partner, both sides, full speed and power. Then I started working on my kata. I don't mind working on my own but I'm not sure that's what is expected. Is it? Or am I supposed to do the same exercise the other students are doing until Sensei instructs me otherwise?

Sounds like a plan I'll stick to the sequence I have, which is slightly under 50 moves but I feel good about it (even a little proud). If Sensei doesn't like it (either content or length) at the test -- I'll keep working on it. There is nothing to lose.Thank you for the thoughtful suggestions!

None. I don't know but this is how I was approaching it with the constraint that the transitions between the techniques should be, so to say, logical. Other people in the posts above suggest to think about the kata as a story. That's a new point of view for me.

I wholeheartedly agree with you that kata should be simple and practical. Though Sensei hasn't asked me to come up with Bunkai for it, for every move I do I visualize what application it could have. What bothers me is the sheer length of it: 50 moves. I'm finding it to be an awfully long kata. Thank you for the idea! I video taped how I do traditional katas before to analyze my mistakes but for some reason haven't thought about it for my own kata! Ah. That's another bit of a problem I don't know how to overcome. When I initially asked Sensei about how I should approach composing the kata he basically said: "Just do it". I've also failed the test for 1 kyu twice (a year ago and this June) and I'm afraid to ask him about my kata in case he takes it as me trying to hint that I want to test again. To be completely honest I'm afraid to ask Sensei about anything. When I did in the past he would look at me as if I was a Martian and say: "Don't talk. Keep training." I'm sure I might have asked wrong questions but I have no idea which question are the right ones.

Thank you for your enthusiastic support. As I'm explaining above, I haven't thought about a kata as a story. I'll ponder about it.

Thanks to everybody for the great advice. I'll reply to some of the comments to clarify my situation and, maybe, invite more conversation. I apologize in advance if I mess up any of the quotes as I'm learning how to use the forum. I'm not doing any competitions and my Sensei has never asked us to participate in them. I'm practicing goju ryu, which is considered to be quite traditional karate as far as I know. Somehow I've never thought about kata as a "story of a battle" that has a beginning and an end. More like a bundle of related techniques and transitions that are taught this way to match student's progress through the curriculum. Might not be a good analogy, but if you think about learning music, kata for me was more like scales than a song... I'm not saying my understanding is correct. I just haven't thought about this before and my Sensei hasn't talked to us about it either.

I've been asked to compose my own kata for the test (2nd kyu going to 1st). It should contain at least 50 moves. I've tried to come up with a meaningful sequence of techniques and transitions between them but I'm still short of 50. And I'm also not sure what I should concentrate on when composing a kata for a test. Should I demonstrate the most advanced techniques I know? Should I ensure it's practical and one can base bunkai on it? Is it OK to reuse sub-sequences from the classical kata I know? Our dojo is very small (only a handful of students) and to my memory nobody else has been asked to compose their own kata for the test. Any advice? How people make up their own kata?