Excuseologists

[AnonymousOne]

It’s been 42 years since I stood in my first Karate class at age 7.

I was fortunate. When I first started training in 1964 there were very few Karate schools in my city and country. Fortunately I was blessed with the fact that I joined a hardcore traditional Japanese school head quartered in Tokyo.

Over the years and starting in the 1970’s with what I call the Kung Fu boom, from Bruce Lees popularisation of martial arts, many schools have popped up all over the place. Hollywood also has taken advantage of these arts to make multi-million dollar movies.

What I have seen, not only here, but all over the world is compromise. Compromise of good standards and technical levels.

In the interests of gaining or maintaining student levels, which leads to the almighty dollar, schools are no longer teaching proper martial arts (many never had them in the first place) and preparing students for the hard realities of actual combat fighting. What we have today is schools that teach martial arts that are not only useless in real situations, but methods that bring dishonour to traditional Karate.

In the religious world these schools would be called heretics and I think its an appropriate word.

My son recently bought a friend home and this friend was introduced to me as a first dan black belt of “Combined Martial Arts”. My son had not told this young man of my training. I asked this young man why combined martial arts. His retort was “Because traditional Karate is ineffective in real fights”.

Well naturally this annoyed me a little bit so I invited the young man to come and train with me to prove his point. My son clandestinely winked at me as to say “Go Pop”. So the following Tuesday this young man aged about 22 arrived wearing his gi and black belt. I invited him outside and walked into my dojo. I asked him to wait. I went and got changed into my gi and proceeded to my dojo.

He looked at me in shock. “You train?” he said. “Oh I do a little bit now and again” I said. He then said “Well, this isn’t really fair I am a lot younger than you so I will take it easy on you”.

I was laughing to myself on the inside. I suggested to him that we go for a warm up run first. He agreed. Around where we live its very hilly and I proceeded to take this young man on a four mile run up and down some very steep hills. By the time we got back he was exhausted. He had to stop many times and I proceeded home and waited for him. I must admit, my ego got the better of me and I did this to prove to this young man that age is irrelevant.

So … to cut a long story short after he recovered, I asked him to demonstrate to me why traditional Karate is ineffective. His technique was weak, lacked speed, power and focus and could only be described and flimsy. He was not very fit for a “black belt” and had learnt some very weird ideas.

Then my son joined us wearing his gi. Then my son and I went on to demonstrate basics, kata and kumite to him. We also spent quite a bit of time discussing conditioning drills, weight training, equipment usage and plyometrics.

I was deeply concerned about this so-called martial arts school he attended. His technique level wouldn’t make 3rd kyu in our school yet he was given shodan grade.

But this is a typical phenomenon around the world. If you just pay your fees and hang around long enough you can become Shodan.

Never mind standards, never mind conditioning, never mind actual workable skills, just pay the fees and you will pass the grade.

I am sorry to say that I lament at this status of Karate around the world. It not only deceives people but it brings disrepute to those schools that have trained long and hard to forge good technique.

Since the 1970’s with the influx of many schools; our school has suffered quite a bit with a decline in student numbers. People want an easy way. They come to our school and experience tough training and then see some other school that gives away black belts and they leave for the con act.

In many boxing circles, ones that train very hard, consider Karate to be a joke and I don’t blame them because what they experience is schools that are money or status orientated rather than technique orientated.

I realise it’s a free world and a market economy and there is nothing we can do about this however I think maybe there needs to be more public awareness of the falsities … somehow.

I often wonder how the likes of Funakoshi, Miyagi, Mabuni, Motobu and the likes would feel if they knew that what they worked their lives for has turned into dance classes with the odd punch thrown in.

When you come home from training and your muscles are not shaking, not aching and you are not totally exhausted and don’t feel stunned, then you are probably in a McDojo who have taken your McMoney to their McBank and one day you will receive a McBlack Belt and will have an amateur boxer run rings around you!!

Face reality. Real Karate is tough. Its boot camp mentality. Its strict! Its hard but the benefits are great.

Don’t be an excuseologist. Don’t compromise for an easy way out. We are not training to compete in a dancing show on TV, we are Warriors!!

[parkerlineage]

Amen!

[Brandon Fisher]

OSS!!

My sensei at least the one I truly consider my sensei was hard the training was very physical but not brutual there was a lot of care involved none the less hard. I always went home sore and worn out but loved every minute of it. To this day I like to push my students to this point. This is why they are karate-ka and not wannabes. Thank you so much for making this post its so true.

[alsey]

excellent post, i agree completely. its so hard these days to find a karate school that will teach you how to fight. i actually stopped training shotokan formally a couple of years ago because the way it was taught was just lame. now me and friend, and occasionally a few others do our own training. the thing is, it wasn't even a mcdojo. the training was hard and it took a good three years to get a black belt. it got me very fit and strong, but it did little to make me a good fighter.

from the dojos i have seen, karate just isn't taught as a fighting art anymore. i'm sure there are schools out there that do teach traditional combative karate, and i hope to find one near me some day.

[RichardHangHong]

Finally! Someone said it!

I agree with you totally.

[bushido_man96]

I agree that the level of training for any martial art should be high. I don't believe it has to be at a professional level of training, but it should be high.

Every class I attend makes me tired. I am always huffing and puffing, and wondering if I am going to make it through. Part of this comes from working hard, and part of it comes from the fact that I am not really a great athlete.

I am not a runner, and I never have been. And I wouldn't require my students to run long distances, but would encourage it.

Also, I do feel that many schools don't spend enough time on self-defense. Sure, time is spent on forms and one-steps, but self-defense training is different.

[Yasutsune Makoto]

well said.

let's hope with time that the traditional spirit returns to the masses, not just us select few!

[armanox]

Total agreement here! A friend of mine, about to get his blackbelt in TKD, asked me to spar with him once. I agreed. Now, at the time, I was still a white belt. And he lost. Miserably. I invited him to come down to my dojo to see how we do things. He agreed. He learned much from sensei, not just about karate, but about his TKD. He learned bunkai for things he had been doing for years that he had never been taught. Needless to say, he's joined my class.

[Scully]

yep all true, well most of it. Your right about dojo standards falling dramatically, but I must ask you not to blame it entirely on money issues, well the greed side of it anyway. I've said before, as some people may have been on the Sensei's Under Pressure post, that some teachers are forced into passing their pupils, even if they do not see fit. My sensei has to pass the lesser students because if he dosnt, they quit (short attention span. They need something fast) He soes it not for the money, he donst make much profit because the hall is very expensive to rent, and it is definetly not for status since he constantly says how he bad he feels when he passes them. He passes them for the sake of the minority who are actually trying. He cant find a smaller hall, or cheaper (we only live in a small town) so he is trying differet methods of teaching.

Your right, black belt noobs (noobs for a lack of a better word) are finding ways to the top, but please dont blame it all on greed.

[Sohan]

Anonymous One, we finally agree. Completely.

Though people study MA for different reasons, in the end we are all warriors. If we are approaching karate with a mind set other than this, we are fooling ourselves, for we live in a very dangerous world. I think sometimes an untrained person is better off than a poorly trained, overconfident black belt, because the untrained person will not necessarily fool themselves into thinking they can do what they cannot.

We should all seek to train more like warriors and insist on the best from ourselves, our dojomates, and our instructors. Let's not fool ourselves into thinking a 60 minute training session twice a week will prepare us to defend ourselves against a determined, vicious, prison-trained attacker.

With respect,

Sohan