Mid [Karate] Life Crisis! Could use some advice

[brentyj]

Hi all! As you can tell this is my first post here, so a big hello to you all. I have been following some of the threads here for quite some time, and look forward to partaking in the interesting and mature disussions that take place here. (Apologies for below being a bit long-winded, but I wanted to properly paint the picture. The is a summary below if you want to skip the wall of text)

As the subject suggests, I need a bit of advice (maybe some people have had similar experiences) regarding my training. You see, I have been training in Goju Ryu Karate on and off since I was 9 (I am 25 now).

As a child of the 90's Im not ashamed to admit a lot of my inspiration for learning Karate came from Power Rangers, The Karate Kid and TMNT lol.

Still, while my friends dropped off I continued and eventually attained my 1st Dan when I was 17.

Though I loved training, I found that my skills lied primarily in sparring and kicks rather than kata, which I often struggled more than most to remember and reproduce kata successfully. As a result, I was often the student that my Sensei would use to push the other students in sparring, and to demonstrate proper kicking techniques.

At around 19 I went on a bit of a break (traveled, parties, the usually early 20's stuff etc) before coming back about a year a go. After returning, I decided that I wanted to focus on my sparring and competition. Not to mention I have a lot of respect for my sensei, and wanted to return to training under his instruction.

The only issue is my teacher is a fairly practical kind of guy. He doesnt like tournaments very much as he basically sees it as pointless and doesnt relate to real self defense (paraphrasing of course). Not only that he has a problem with large egos and sees competition as way people can stroke their egos. The only tournaments we hold (and rarely at that) are inter-club, and even then they are separated into teams so we dont have a singular winner and that everyone gets a go.

Sensei will not stop us should we want to go to an external tournament, and may even come to watch, though his distain for the competition in general is obvious. And while there may be some sparring at the end of class, nearly all our class time is dominated by kata and their respective techniques.

So why am I saying all this? Well, my time away allowed me to gain perspective on what I actually wanted to achieve in Karate. And that is sparring and competition... the exact thing my club doesnt put any emphasis on.

Now I dont intend to slander my Sensei, my respect for his teaching is what brought me back to this club in the first place. However, it is becoming obvious that what I desire to achieve in martial arts, doesnt mesh with his philosophy.

To further add to this, about 4 months ago I joined a mixed martial arts gym primarily to get fit and cross train. I ended up taking BJJ classes and muay thai and have fallen in love with the 'hands on' approach (especially in BJJ). Dont get me wrong, I understand the importance of kata, however I would be lying if I didnt find it quite boring and not well suited to me. I have a bad short term memory and often forget the details.

Still, I do not think MMA is better, nor do I want this to turn into a 'VS' thread. I believe there is a lot to be learned from traditional arts, especially in a world outsite the ring where there are no rules.

However I also believe that there is a lot to be gained out of the conditioning that say boxing provides. Learning via template/kata is all well and good. However, aside from 1 or 2 of the black belts in my club, I am positive the rest would get a real shock should they get ito a real life incident on the street.

This happened to me when I was 18, when I was trying to defend a friend who was attacked on the street in the city. I feel as though I wasnt adequatley prepared for the.... 'realness', 'hardness' and brutality of what happened to me. My nose is still a bit disfigured to this day as a reminder that fights are messy and brutal, and not something that kata's really prepare you for. But I digress...

To summarise

While I respect my teachers knowledge, I feel that we are of different mindsets and do not share the same attitudes in karate. I just dont know what the right thing to do is. Should I leave? Should I explain to him why, or just go?

While I like training MMA, my heart lies in Karate. However, I would like to train in way that involves less kata and more sparring. Not to mention somewhere that encourages competition. Perhaps I am more suited to Kyokushin?

Anyway, while the subject may have been a bit dramatic, this is indeed a bit of a crisis for me. I feel I am betraying my sensei by even writing this, however I must know if people have had any fundamental differences between themselves and their teacher, and what they did about it.

Anyway, thank you to all who got through this wall of text. Its great to be a part of these forums and I look forward to your reply.

[barryives]

Welcome, great first post.

You're clearly very torn, so all I'll say is life to too short to spend it doing things you think you should, do the things you know you want to.

Don't worry about what the art is, get what you want out of it and have fun

[Shotoseidoka]

I went through almost the same thing a few years back. I studied Shotokan for just over 12 years then joined the military. Since joining the military I've had to move quite a bit and spend a lot of time away from my home. This was and has been both a blessing and a curse. I've been able to explore other styles, teaching methods, differences in techniques, etc. However, my first Sensei was very strict and we trained very hard. Kata was an important part of our training but full contact sparing was the meat of the class.

Now I'm in Okinawa, and it's much more different here than I expected it would be. While looking for a class that I liked I noticed that all dojos did some kumite but not at the level I was use to. Kata here is very important, especially the bunkai. Second to Kata is Tuite (joint locks and controlling techniques). The Dojo I decided to go with works a lot with Tuite self-defense, kata, and kobudo. As far as I can tell from my research, this is how most Okinawans trained, sparing was the least practiced portion.

Because of these differences I had several disagreements with the Sensei's way of teaching. I decided that I couldn't keep it to my self and arranged a meeting with him so that I could express my concerns. He was grateful for the honesty and we worked it out to where he and I would stay after class once in a while and spar.

So, my suggestion to you is, yes you should talk with your Sensei...especially since you say that your 'heart lies in karate' he deserves the honor of you being truthful with him. Now that being said, it may not change anything as far as tournaments go, but he may help you train in a more realistic way, or show you how the kata can be more than just kicking, punch, block (see other threads about that subject).

Hope this helps...

[Dobbersky]

Brentyj-san

You get out of karate WHAT you want out of it!

No if you Love Goju it IS an excellent base to work from but you know if you begin another style you will need to put your Black Belt away from site for many years. Kyokushin is an Excellent step up (in Kumite) from Goju as Goju forms part of Kyokushin's "DNA". If you can stick with your current style as its already given you so much already.

Have you discussed the issues with your Sensei, if he is a good sensei he will be able to accomodate you or give you "permission" to Cross-Train. Be careful as he may ask you to find a new avenue in your journey through the Ryu.

Find out if there is a Kyokushin School near you. There is also Ashihara, Enshin and Daido Juku which are stlyes you could look at but Ashihara and Enshin have a different approach to Kata and Fighting.

[brickshooter]

Brentyj,

MOVE ON to Kyokushin!

[todome]

Sounds to me like you're keeping your other pursuits off the dojo floor, sensei is minding his own business and there's really no issue. Make sure you don't walk away from a problem that isn't there.

[tallgeese]

If you really want to stay with a form of karate, then I think there is some good advice here. Find a system or school that de-emphasises kata. Not just systems, but schools often vary as to what they focus on, check some out that are geared towards sd and see if it's more to you liking.

And stay with BJJ! But I'm biased

Good luck, keep us posted, and welcome to KF!

[Ueshirokarate]

I am going to give a slightly different take. I wouldn't give up Goju-Ryu and start chasing other styles. I would suggest that you keep up with Goju-Ryu and use your new found MMA skills to dig deeper in Goju-Ryu. There is so much the katas can teach you as a martial artist and traditional training is tradition for a reason.

[brentyj]

Wow great responses everyone. You have all given me a lot to think about.

For the moment, I think I will continue my goju ryu and channel my competitive side through my BJJ (where competition is highly encouraged)

After all, I have only been back for year and , as Sensei says, black belt means master of basics, and there is still so much to learn.

Although I am keen to explore different forms of Karate, maybe I should wait until I know a little bit more about my own

Thanks again everyone

[bushido_man96]

I don't think you are betraying your sensei in any way. People are different from each other, and we all want different things. And what we want now may change down the road. This is natural.

I understand that you are partial to your current sensei, but if the MMA training is providing more of what you want, and is presenting it in a format that you feel is better suited to your goals, then it might be a good idea to change venues for the time being. Unless you can make it work at both places, but time constraints could become a factor.

Remember, this Martial Arts journey is your journey, not your current sensei's, or anyone else's. You have to make decisions based on what you think is right for you.

Best of luck in your continuing journey. Please keep us posted.

And welcome to the Forums.