Trust in Training

[White Warlock]

This post was originally published as an article in a dedicated KarateForums.com Articles section, which is no longer online. After the section was closed, this article was most to the most appropriate forum in our community.

 

Days on end we practice, entering into a dangerous situation, working with people we hardly know outside of the training hall. Injuries happen, in some places more than most would consider acceptable. Personalities clash as bodies collide and in this turmoil, we learn.

 

Many times we forget why we enter into a training hall. We exit from the freeway, having barely ignored impassioned gesticulations tossed out of rolled-down windows, blaring radios and overzealous horn-blowers, then join into a session of mock physical confrontation with a sometime partner. We thrust, kick, grab, throw, punch and when we get up, we feel guilt for the injury now held by the practitioner that foolishly agreed to practice with someone still struggling with road rage.

 

A hard day at work, little sleep and a five-minute meal sets the pace for how you decide to handle your training session this day. Cold, quick and merciless, you practice techniques with methodical precision and wanton disregard. Your session partner fakes a punch and you maul him, not caring even to buffer your blows or his fall. The end of the session and you feel refreshed, but your partner... he'll be out for a week as the inflammations subside. Inside, you smirk.

 

A taskmaster runs the warm-ups today. You find this person irritating, but fail to approach him with your concerns or attempt a relationship. Instead, you hold to a festering animosity and a growing disrespect. But, today, things will be different. Your opportunity for redemption has arrived as you and he are matched up for a sparring session.

 

 

 

Entering lightly, you test your victim's defenses, but are encouraged by the instructor to commit... and you do. You find the taskmaster isn't up to your barrage and you feel vindicated. Then, stepping back to revel in your conquest, you become the victim. One quick strike and your victory is spoiled, the rewards rudely wrenched from your grasp as you buckle over and gasp for air.

 

And yet... you think, "there will be another time." Revenge will be yours. By all rights you won and by all rights you will win again! And this time, the taskmaster will know who is the better!

 

All of these examples illustrate a fundamental flaw in understanding the relationship that exists when you step onto the mat. Each incident is different, but played out in countless ways in countless places throughout the world. What is worse, is that so few realize what is wrong here.

 

The martial arts is a study into the process of incapacitating an imminent threat, whether by physical force or mental command. It is "about" injuring, maiming and even killing. A study into the use the body and mind to project and eventually produce, a lethal outcome. It is not a dance, a race or a testosterone-inducing exercise. What we practice can and will hurt people, innocent or otherwise and therefore we should respect the tools we are being given and the partnerships we enter into.

 

A training hall offers an environment where people of like interest can "safely" practice these studies, but the responsibility falls upon every participant to recognize the necessity of trust required in building each other's skills. Hidden agendas endanger those who have entered onto the mat to share in the trust required to expand upon the knowledge of this most dangerous study. Hidden agendas must be recognized at the onset, for they do not merely undermine this trust, they threaten a life. Both others and their own.

 

Each participant needs to seriously consider the consequences of their actions and realize that their training partner is providing absolute trust. He stands before you naked, while you perform actions that could cripple him for life. He is not an adversary, enemy or fleshy mannequin with movable limbs.

 

Regardless of your feelings for the person you study with, he is offering you his lifeline in order that you may gain knowledge. This is a living being that is offering you a means to study, trusting you to keep the physical form intact. In turn, you must offer your trust and each of you will learn together.

 

Dismiss what has happened in the day, come refreshed and of sound mind, walk onto the mat, and bow to your classmates with a new understanding. Learn to recognize them as study partners, not as occasional adversaries and you will not only decrease the chance of injuries, but enhance your experience exponentially.

[Patrick]

Thank you for the submission.

[aefibird]

Great article WW, very well written and a good point made.

[kle1n]

Good job. Seems like you do not 'only' know some stuff about girls

[White Warlock]

Pfft

[Rotten Head Fok]

Great Article WW , I hope that younger people will read this and at least give it some consideration and remind all of us to stay focused on why we train with respect for one another.

[Saltchrome]

But what about trusting the Instructor? That, I think, is becoming the hardest obstacle to trust these days.

[sAtelitte]

Nice article WW

 

Yesterday i asked draven chen Zhen (a member on this forum but he's not posting a lot these days) how he was doing with the new sparring equipement he just bought for full contact sparring. As a response i got a list of injuries his opponents suffered. Now he's a good guy and a good friend but when sparring with him at the dojo or at home he can really go overboard. Of course sparring between friends is still something else then with a partner at your school who you really don't know much about but still... Some respect and knowing that you're doing it to learn might be in order

[White Warlock]

But what about trusting the Instructor? That, I think, is becoming the hardest obstacle to trust these days.

For some people, and at the beginning it is. However, this article did not exclude trainers, as it was directed towards all practitioners.

[italian_guy]

Good article WW, you touched an interesting subject.

 

Since now (I'm in MA since March 2003 so a relatively short time) I saw only a few problems related on control during sparring. Once at the very beginning during drills (not even during actual sparring) a guy with a very cocky attitude lost the control of one of its uppercut knocking down his partner which reported a small injury in his mouth, I have the feeling that sometimes you can tell people you can trust from people you cannot, you can tell by their attitude.

 

On the other end there are some people that are too upset about getting injured that it is a real trouble sparring with them.

 

During my first karate lesson (late April this year) the instructor allow me to spar since he knew I had more then one year kickboxing experience.

 

I was paired with a white belt; as soon as we started he was going towards me holding his guard too high so I hit him with a mae geri in his stomach and he started moaning something I did not understood, after a few second I counter him with a sequence of pounches the latest to his mouth, I'm sure I did not hurt him but he started screaming at the instructor to stop the fight, in order not to make a bad first impression I started to apologise but he did not accept that and walked away, now I think I will try not to spar with him in the future for two reason the first is that I think that no matter I hit him softly as long as I hit him he will start complaining, the second is that he may try something dirty to look for some revenge.

 

Just my two eurocents.