Traditions Need To Be Challenged!!

[sensei8]

Here is my opinion:

Trust your teacher. In my experience when I was younger I disagreed with some of the traditions being taught in my dojo. However, out of respect I continued to practice even if I didn't think there was much merit or purpose. Later on though I got better and the reasons for the traditions became more apparent.

Some traditions like bowing or saying Oss are just cultural traditions that don't make much of a difference in your karate technique. (arguably it trains the spirit)

An example would be kata and kumite. When I was younger (10-15 yrs old) I was all about wanting to do kumite all day. All my teachers told me to practice kata as it was more important to mastering techniques. Now after training in kata and kumite (22 yrs old), i see kata more valuable as a training resource for getting better than continuous sparring. However, when I first started I didn't get the same value out of kata training as I do now, so how was I to know that kata could be better?

I am guessing that the few remaining traditions that I blindly follow will make more sense the more I train. Maybe some things we practice now will help us continue karate in old age when our bodies are weaker and need to have correct posture? Only a master who has practiced and is in old age would know the value in a tradition that helped you train during old age.

My point being is that if I challenged everything that was presented to me on day one and If I never did it because of that, then I would possibly never know what it was all about once its perfected.

Solid post!!

[sensei8]

Excellent replies thus far...thank you all. Please keep them coming!!

[tallgeese]

I think the final answer as to if you should question a tradition or not depends on your assessment of what you're in martial arts for in the first place. Most of your direction in the arts depend on an honest assessment of what you're in them for in the first place.

If your goal is the preservation of an art form developed in a given country at a given time in its development then obviously no, you're not going to question tradition.

If your goal is the building of a combative base in the most efficient manner possible, then yes, you should question any tradition that seems to be counter productive. You don't have to throw them out, out of hand but you should take an informed look at it. You should then reassess them as you gain training and experience.

It's an ongoing process.

[HungKuen]

This comes up quite often when someone practises a martial art. Often times tradition is placed ahead of progress in order to make something "more authentic". You have to look at the purpose of these traditions and ask yourself if it detracts from your learning of the art.

My old kung fu school had us bow before and after class, which i assume many schools do. I never understood the whole bowing mentality as i think respect is shown in a number of other ways. But it didn't affect my learning so i didn't mind doing it. Then when we are asked to hold horse stance for 30 min i would ask why? There has to be more useful ways in building your stance because you're not going to be in that stance in a prolonged period of time.

Sometimes it's good to keep traditions and sometimes it needs to evolve. I think i may have repeating what others have said but what the heck

[JusticeZero]

Then when we are asked to hold horse stance for 30 min i would ask why? There has to be more useful ways in building your stance because you're not going to be in that stance in a prolonged period of time.

Probably the same reason I have for having held ginga for an hour a few times before, and for planning to inflict it on my own students. I can't mystically see into your body alignment, and some glitches will pass unnoticed until you have to hold it for a long time and their parasitic nature suddenly creates all sort of complaints that need addressing.

[HungKuen]

Proper body alignment can be noticed right away when hitting a heavy bag, focus mitts etc...I don't think it necessary to hold stance for an extended period in order to see glitches. Besides, prolonged static stance training will fatigue the person and this fatigue will cause them to go out of alignment.

[JusticeZero]

Not necessarily, it depends where the glitch is. I'm not talking about glitches in the structure from the strike to the ground but in the structure when resisting itself.

Furthermore, if you don't have alignment when fatigued, you don't have alignment at all. The fact that you were having to use exertion to pin your structure into optimal means that your neutral isn't where it needs to be.

Anyways, for a lot of things, you usually need to learn the motion under a load of heavy fatigue just to get the structure right to begin with. Relaxing isn't easy and neither is removing all the improper adjustment movements people do to try to enact the movement, which are wrong.

[Kodakmint]

If things stay the same, they can't be improved upon. Challenges change that