One guy's karate journey

[Wayofaswede]

Happy to hear that your karate feels good.

[shortyafter]

Happy to hear that your karate feels good.

Yes, thanks for chiming in! Your thread was a bit of an inspiration for me to make my own. Good luck to you.

[Wayofaswede]

Very happy to hear that - great that we can inspire each other in this inspiring forum. Osu!

[shortyafter]

Karate for me is a sort of way of life. This way of life was something I had already begun practicing before getting into karate, and karate was sort of the natural result of applying that attitude in all of my affairs.

I've been changing a lot recently, for the better, and I have my attitude and also my karate to thank for this growth. Today, however, was a difficult day and I was not totally happy with the way I "performed" at work today. Without going into specifics, I'm not exactly talking about how productive I was but rather my relationship with myself and with my workmates/students. Before work, I was already feeling a bit discouraged.

If you scroll back to the last page, you'll see I posted a bit about an anecdote from Funakoshi's "Karate Do: My Way of Life". He tells the tale of a karate practitioner that realized that what we normally conceive of as life is nothing more than vanity - we are just clumps of matter, just mere blades of grass, in this vastness that is the universe. Weakness is inherent, inevitable.

Well, that is how I'm feeling today. Weak and discouraged. But, now with the help of a close friend, I've come again to the same realization as the practitioner in the anecdote - that this weakness is nothing to be ashamed of, for it is the very nature of life itself. It is impossible for me to expect that I be the best at work, or at karate. In fact, it may even be unreasonable for me to expect that I be good at karate/life, at least not every single day. And definitely not as good as any of the masters. I am simply a layman, a beginner, a guy who practices barely 3 times a week. And even if I wracked up my training a lot, I would still run into the limitations of being a human being.

So it's not necessarily about adjusting my performance or anything like that. Because that's not always within my control. But what is within in my control, always, is my attitude towards my circumstances, towards my journey, towards my weakness. My attitude is something that I can always chose.

And just like the practitioner in Funakoshi's anecdote, from that realization comes the ultimate strength, the strength that is beyond life and death itself.

Sometimes I really doubt my technique, both in karate and in life, and I have real doubts about if I will ever make it. But all I know how to do is to keep moving forward, and to trust that, life will indeed guide me where I need to go. Alas, I have already been given so much. And for that I am grateful.

Thank you to all of you.

Very happy to hear that - great that we can inspire each other in this inspiring forum. Osu!

Osu!

[shortyafter]

I was having a rough time with karate and just about everything last time I posted here. But I came to a realization and since then things have been going great.

I was very happy with my karate on Wednesday and on Friday. It looked and felt strong. I wasn't just nit picking little things... somehow I was grasping the major concepts and it was all starting to come together for me like it never had before. When we do bunkai I was always so focused on doing it "correctly". And of course, that is a must. But today I was mostly focused on doing something that would actually work, using all the knowledge my teacher and other people have given me. The difference was night and day. It's like it all came together magically.

I was speaking to my teacher about some of the spiritual concepts of karate I had been learning about and examining. He definitely has heart in his karate, and emphasizes that, but it doesn't go much beyond that for him. For me, as I said above, it is a way of life. And you know what I realized as I spoke to him this evening after class? My way is just as good as his way. In fact, I even have things I think I could offer to him. My first teacher told me outperforming your Senpais is also a form of budo karate. And I agree.

I'm not saying I'm better than my teacher at karate, by any means. I'm not saying I don't need him to guide me along, because I do and he's a great teacher. I'm not saying I don't respect him. Because I do, a lot. I'm just saying, I'm learning to trust my karate journey. After all, the name of this thread is one guy's karate journey, not two or three or any of the rest of the world.

Thanks folks for being here.

[shortyafter]

What an up and down journey this is. I had a really bad couple of days, followed by a good week, and all in the context of me generally feeling good about karate. Tonight's class was very disheartening.

Somehow I ended up being the only one in class which sucks for some reasons but it's cool because I got 1 on 1 with my teacher. We looked at some basics for my exam and I felt that went decently well. Then we looked at the yoko-geri which was very disheartening. I posted in here awhile back that I had finally gotten it but it looks like I wasn't quite right. We spent about 20-30 minutes looking at the kick and doing various stretches to try to get me to do it correctly.

My instructor thinks it's a flexibility issue. I'm not immediately ruling that out but I honestly think it's because I haven't gotten the knack of it yet. Like, I see him do it and it makes sense. But then I do it and I can't replicate it. I just don't know what it's supposed to feel like! Another thing making me think it's not flexibility is because at one point he said I did execute it correctly when I posted a few months back. Which makes me think I can do it, it's just a matter of figuring out the way to do it consistently.

Disheartening because all these thoughts race into my head of "I can't do it, I'll never be able to do it, I'm no good"... Yeah. I know it's non-sense but that's the kind of stuff that comes up for me. The good news? Beneath all that negative mind chatter I'm confident that with patience and perseverance I can do this. A bit down folks, but certainly not out.

Osu.

[shortyafter]

Been working on that yoko-geri at home. After a bad training the other night I thought "OMG I'm completely off track and I have to start all over again and this is gonna take so much work and maybe I can't do it!" Which was all crap and luckily I saw through it.

Tonight we did a bit of yoko-geri. Kihon training felt good. Then we did a bit in pairs to actually fire the kicks on a partner. My left was poor but I fired a right-legged yoko-geri kekome and my teacher said "ah yeah, that's a nice, powerful kick!"

So there it is folks. Still gotta work on it but I can do it and I will do it.

[sensei8]

If you've not done so as of yet, please read about the concept of Shu Ha Ri because this is what occurs continuously in ones MA journey, no matter rank.

Everything that I've read on this thread speaks about the ups and downs that a MAist experiences. In which, you might want to consider this...

7 times down, 8 times up!!

That, right there, that's you!! And that's a great thing!!

Discouragement happens, but it's the test of ones character that embodies the maxim of 7 times down, 8 times up. It's easier to quit that it is to endure, but I don't see that in you, not from what I've read.

As my Sensei always says, and as his Sensei always told him...

SHUGYO...Suck it up!! Welcome to the MA; if it was easy, everyone would be doing it...but everyone's NOT doing the MA...but you are!!

You're fine, shortyafter; train hard and train well!!

[shortyafter]

Hi sensei8!

I remember you mentioned Shu Ha Ri. That makes a lot of sense to me. Shugyo, I like it. And as for 7 times down, 8 times up... my body doesn't always do what I want it to, and definitely not always on command... my mind and heart are human and often stray. But I know that all I have to do is keep pushing forward, even if it feels like a mere inch at a time.

7 times down, 8 times up. It's what I always do, and ultimately only I can choose to get up off the floor. Nobody can make that choice for me. But I will say, it certainly helps to have good people there to encourage me. Thank you, sensei8.

[MatsuShinshii]

What an up and down journey this is. I had a really bad couple of days, followed by a good week, and all in the context of me generally feeling good about karate. Tonight's class was very disheartening.

Somehow I ended up being the only one in class which sucks for some reasons but it's cool because I got 1 on 1 with my teacher. We looked at some basics for my exam and I felt that went decently well. Then we looked at the yoko-geri which was very disheartening. I posted in here awhile back that I had finally gotten it but it looks like I wasn't quite right. We spent about 20-30 minutes looking at the kick and doing various stretches to try to get me to do it correctly.

My instructor thinks it's a flexibility issue. I'm not immediately ruling that out but I honestly think it's because I haven't gotten the knack of it yet. Like, I see him do it and it makes sense. But then I do it and I can't replicate it. I just don't know what it's supposed to feel like! Another thing making me think it's not flexibility is because at one point he said I did execute it correctly when I posted a few months back. Which makes me think I can do it, it's just a matter of figuring out the way to do it consistently.

Disheartening because all these thoughts race into my head of "I can't do it, I'll never be able to do it, I'm no good"... Yeah. I know it's non-sense but that's the kind of stuff that comes up for me. The good news? Beneath all that negative mind chatter I'm confident that with patience and perseverance I can do this. A bit down folks, but certainly not out.

Osu.

First things first - we are all human and as such we will fail. IMHO you are not giving yourself a break. You have to realize that this is a life long journey and the knowledge of the heavens is not going to magically appear nor is the skills earned over decades going to be bestowed upon you in your first few months/years. It's a life long journey. Cut yourself some slack and learn to enjoy your triumphs and failures.

If you never have any hiccups you'll never know what your doing right and what your doing wrong. Embrace these bumps in the road as a chance to improve. Not getting one thing down in some mystical time limit is impractical. Your body and mind are both growing while your training. Sometimes the body lags behind and sometimes its the other way. This is totally natural and in time you'll get it and wonder why you worried about it.

This is your journey and as such you should enjoy not only the successes but also the failures. Through failures we learn what not to do. This is sometimes more valuable than just natural ability. To understand the whats, hows and whys makes you better all the way around.

Enjoy each day and what it brings no matter good or bad because it's all good if your learning about yourself and improving based on that knowledge. Just remember it never comes all at once. As with anything worth doing it takes time to do things the right way.

A master of any trade did not become that way over night. It's called practice, practice and more practice. Eventually you'll get there and when you do it will be all that much sweeter because you had to work for it.

Enjoy the journey.