The ISKF

[cathal]

Someone told me the other day that the ISKF is riddled with politicing and bickering. I just don't see that, and my dojo is affiliated with them. Has anyone seen this for themselves?

[RichardHangHong]

ISKF?

[bushido_man96]

International Sport Karate Federation? Is that right?

[cathal]

Sorry guys. It's the International Shotokan Karate Federation. I should have said that to begin with.

[RichardHangHong]

Oh I see. Who's the head of the organisation?

[DancingSteve]

Generally your not going to run into bad politics until you start trying to compare the different organizations and their head instructors.

All these sub instructors of Funakoshi have split apart and created their own family trees so to speak. So when you talk about the different organizations your talking about the grandkids of Funakoshi's teachings. Some of the grandkids (us) are going to love grandpa no matter...the heads of our respective organizations are like our fathers...the other orgs are like uncles. Your going to have the cool uncles...and the nasty uncles. And they are going to fight like brothers usually do.

When Funakoshi died Im sure they all had their own agendas and noone wanted to back down (being honorable and headstrong japanese men as they are)

Basically the ITKF is Nishiyama, and the ISKF is Okazaki. The only funny thing I think about Okazaki is that he promoted himself to 9th dan to be ahead of Nishiyama. Usually 9th dan is reserved for when you die in Shotokan..but some of the recent factions have disregarded this tradition.

Also..the ITKF/AAKF is recognized by the IOC as the governing body for Traditional Karate. Nishiyama has been recognized by the Japanese Government as a National Living Treasure and the US Senate recently flew a flag over Capitol Hill in honor of Nishiyama's birthday. These are all due to his international presence and contribution to the art of karate.

In my humble opinion...Nish is the man...there is no other.

But thats just one mans opinion.

Anyways..back to the point. This is where most of the politic'ing comes from. If you train...compete....test. Have fun...dont worry about the politics.

If you plan on running a dojo one day...you may run into some of it if theres a competing dojo in your city...but usually its minimal.

[DancingSteve]

The one thats garnered a lot of criticism is Kanazawa...yet another 'son' of Funakoshi.

Recently promoted himself to 10th dan. Thats the shady thing that a lot of people are talking about. Not the Okazaki 9th dan. But you have to wonder about how these guys are justifying moving 'themselves' up to a new dan level...especially the 10th which has been traditionally when you die.

FYI his organization is the SKIF.

[RichardHangHong]

I always thought that 9th and 10th dans had to be somewhat advanced in their years so I found it quite a shock to hear of a traditional karateka who is a 10th Dan at the tender age of 47. I don't think he's Shotokan though but I may be wrong.

[DancingSteve]

The main problem now adays is..and Im not dogging any particular style or discipline BUT.

Your rank..and your accomplishments are your credibility. Its hard to get someone in the door to take a class if they dont see something impressive.

Hence the windows full of trophies...the GrandMaster Shihan, Shihanchi, Sifu Grand Dragon Sifu, Hokey Pokey Poo-Bah titles everyone wants to impose on themselves to give themselves more credibility.

I am not kidding you..I saw this in our Township parade on the fourth of July. The local TKD club which had a lot of membership..good on him for that.. marching in the parade of course promoting their club. If my kids self defense classes had any more than a dozen kids in it..I might have done the same thing. But the sensei for this club was walking down the middle of his students. They were breaking re-breakable boards and play-sparring in the street. And he was walking in the middle of all this chaos...holding a python! I was like...wtf! Why a python. So my point being that karate instructors CAN and WILL get a little full of themselves and do some really ridiculous stuff to 'stand out'.

Now enter in all these new-ish styles that have emerged in America...Theres a LOT. A lot of people who 'found' these styles immediately rocket themselves to something uber-impressive. 10th Dan. Wow...10th degree black belt! You must be great! I want to take classes from you!

Actually...do this test. Next time you tell someone you do martial arts..and they ask what belt you are... If your a black belt..just say black belt. The next question will be 'What degree'

Because just being a black belt isnt good enough anymore. When I started karate being anything above a black belt was like...oh my god..the craziest thing.. My instructor was a nidan, his instructor was a godan. I remember thinking if I made shodan..that was going to be my biggest accomplishment. No way was I ever going to be like those guys.

Now people assume you can get black belt no problem...its those UPPER levels of black belt that are impressive. Just human nature I guess..but its sad.

To prove that point I remember another story and then I'll stop hijacking this thread. I was again teaching the kids self defense classes underneath a TKD guy..(which is where I got the idea for my own program--I didnt copy..I just gleaned) anyways..he had these kids in the program who had been in his classes from a young age...all approaching brown and black belt level. Because essentially when you have a bunch of kids like that. Its hard to fail them unless they are really the suck.

Anyways..none of these kids had really done anything super hard in martial arts..the classes were more games....silly drills like 100 kicks in a minute(they drove me crazy)...and self defense..and a little free sparring. They had never gotten that traditional sweaty class where the instructor was barking at them..and telling them. Withdrawing Side!, pull that fist back!...more hips! That kind of class. So I gave it to them. They hated it. But afterwards one of them came up to me and said. I liked that class Sensei...'When I'm black belt, I want to teach like you.' What struck me as odd was the 'When, not IF..or Someday...it was. When. Like they had a sense of entitlement to getting black belt. I dont know..maybe its just me.

[Rick_72]

What struck me as odd was the 'When, not IF..or Someday...it was. When. Like they had a sense of entitlement to getting black belt. I dont know..maybe its just me.

Are you sure it was a sense of "entitlement" and not just realizing their goals? Shouldn't all martial artist's young and old have goals of making black belt? I always say "when" not "if", because if I think there's a chance I can't make it then I never will.