Balance

[mArTiAl_GiRl]

If you go out with plans to get a shodan and develop your own style, you're going to fail. Sorry.

 

If you go out, learn things, live life, experience the arts, learn the arts, and truly master the arts, then at the end you WILL have your own style. Everyone ends up with their own style eventually. It may more or less look like isshin-ryu, but your own perspective and approach will make it your own.

 

It's more than just getting a black belt and going out on your own. Sorry.

 

look, he doesn't have to truly master anything, because it comes with the time anyway. Of course he has to know different styles, but he doesn't have to get Shodan in every style of karate (Wado-ryu, Shito-ryu, Shotokan, Goju-ryu) and he doesn't have to 'truly master' the arts of Karate to develop his own style. It's enough of one or two styles to master, to feel the way of these styles, since it was actually the same with the old masters, Funakoshi, Kenwa Mabuni and so on. When he knows the differences and similarities between the two styles, he can distinguish other styles too. It's the same with me, I've tried like 3 different styles and I can just tell what's different about some other styles when I see someone doing a kata or the way of training disciples.

 

He knows what he's doing so I wouldn't say he's going to fail, that's kind of overdone to say 'he's going to fail'. You shouldn't have such a pessimistic thought about a creative person with a true martial spirit who wants to develop his own style.

[Sasori_Te]

I agree and disagree with you Martial_Girl. He doesn't have to master many styles, or even one style because it is not possible to master a style as there is no definitive measure for doing so. He does however need to master himself and have an excellent knowledge of martial arts techniques or a good strong base in one art. I think the main point here is that you shouldn't begin a journey into the martial arts by wanting to make up your own style. He has already stated that he has not ever tested for rank in any other style. He's going to need a lot more knowledge than he has now and he's also going to need to develop some patience and perseverance in order to develop his own style. We never said that he would ultimately fail. We said he'd fail if he continued with the method he's trying to use now.

[mArTiAl_GiRl]

I definitely didn't say he MUST master a style, I just meant he needs knowledge about those styles, or just the style he's practicing right now. It's all up to him. So, don't get me all wrong. Actually, you shouldn't say he'd fail at all and 'master' either. Because, who knows... People develop and evolve all the time, there's no end to it and no you can't say: he'll fail, because it's his way and if it feels right then let's better say you've done a good job.

[Drunken Monkey]

hmm, i'm not too keen on the statement suggesting that at shodan he is able to then go and ceate his own style.

 

especially as i was under the impression that shodan is kinda the time when you first begin to explore the style in depth properly, since now you know the bread and butter (forms and what moves look like) of the style.

[Sasori_Te]

DM....that's what I thought too. When I got my Shodan was the time I first realized how little I actually knew. I hate to put it this way but I will. When you're young and idealistic it's much easier to miss seeing the forest because the trees are in the way.

[fireka]

All very valid points, but please consider the following. What you know about me is that for one reaosn or another I have not gotten to test. That is no show of my knoladge of the martial Arts, only that I have no been able to stand in front of a board of three shodans or more and preform Seisan kata and three hold breaks. It doesn't mena I can't test, it doenst mean i'm not superior to the next rnak, not saying I am just that I can't be sure. I can tell you however, that there are soem who have made shodan in the amount of time I have been studying the Martial Arts.

 

Also please take this into understanding, I am a writer. When I get an inspiration for anything I can not fight it away, I was inspire dwith a philosophy that I must apply to the martial arts. Now whiel I develop it i keep a bundel over to hide it, I will keep it quite until my knoaldge is enough that perhaps I can show a few more people and it can actually begin to grow but we talk distant future. However, I will continue to develop it's purpose, it is a widely internal art and there is no shame in developing my own life philosophy further.

 

Now as far as all this shodan bussiness goes i'm afraid iv'e led you all in the wrong direction, i'm not going to open a dojo for my style the day after my black belt test. I was just saying that as one of many, many steps, I think it would be wise to aquire shodan level in the art I have already studied.

[Sasori_Te]

That would be a good first step on your journey. Good luck with that.

[White Warlock]

I read Tommarker's post quite differently than it seems others did. But, instead of attempting to rephrase what he stated, i'll toss out my thoughts... in my own words.

 

Fireka, i too am a writer. I've even won a cute little international award and some nice little pats on the back for some of my articles. Eventually i'll finish one of my many books piled high on my computers' harddrives. But, for now, i post in these and other forums.

 

Writing is a beautiful way to express yourself and it allows for people to reach inside themselves and find the true gems to their philosophies on life, the universe, and everything (indeed, occasionally a babelfish helps). But, prose is not action and action is the basis of all things proveable in the martial arts. For a hundred wise sayings can easily be thwarted with one clean choke-hold.

 

I entered into writing because it became yet one more means for me to express myself and allowed me to present a degree of immortality that doesn't hold the threat of 18 years of child support payments. Writing is a clean, mean, verbosity machine that cuts right to the chase, or dances around for days on end. But, regardless of the motivations to your writings, it is the endgoal that matters. What you pose in print, becomes your epitaph. It is what others will remember you by and it will be what others apply in judgement. That being said, it is best to ensure what you write becomes what you mean, rather than what you want to present.

 

A thousand reasons exist for my initial entry into the arts, and for my continued studies in them. A thousand reasons still exist for my wanting to walk away and for my wanting to continue in my studies. But it is the words and the ways that hold me to develop a deeper understanding of myself, and it is this striving in the 'ultimate' goal that prevents me from 'completing' the one true way of how life should be dealt with and how the martial arts should be applied.

 

I have not reached perfection, absolute happiness, inner peace, or even utter success. It may be that I never will. I am not sure how many have reached these goals, but it is these goals that are at the end of any road travelled. So, when i examine my motivations, i place them under harsh criticism... and heavy scrutiny.

 

It is far more important to me that I provide meaningful growth to others, than it is for me to make a quick buck. I know that not everyone strives for this. Short term satisfaction is a great and popular dish, but it grows cold in the stomach even while long term satisfaction continues to brew in the pot.

 

Setting unobtainable goals pushes people to unobtainable personal expectations, and that is not necessarily a good thing, nor am i advocating such. What i do advocate is for people to constantly strive to gauge their emotions, their wants and their needs, and to reach for that which will bring them closer to their 'ultimate' goals, however unobtainable they may be. For it is not the endgoal that, in the end, truly matters, but the path which they take in their neverending journey to obtain it.

 

All that being said, stay true to yourself and I wish you luck in your endeavors.

[Ripper]

Wow, amen Warlock. Well said/written. Couldn't agree with you more, but if I would have written it down it wouldn't come out the way you wrote it. But hey, that's just my weakness. It is also one of the reasons I'm on this forum; to learn how to put things/ideas, etc. in words.

[fireka]

yep, i agree, and the only real way to see if I know what i'm doing is to wait and watch. I may be leading myself down a path of misery and self destruction but hey, that might be fun too.