Are there any ranks/training periods you would want to relive?

[ryanryu]

Do you have any time periods in your training you wish you could relive? I’ve been thinking about the karate journey through the ranks and how your experience changes as you continue to train. While I am happy with where I am at now, it would be nice to relive that newly-minted black belt feeling. I remember the confidence and happiness of those months after the big test – what a fun time to be in the dojo! 

I’d also love to revisit my green belt days (5th kyu, right in the middle of the progression to black belt) and see if my perspective on those ranks today is at all true of what I actually experienced. I remember being in awe of the art at that point - it's the start of moving to more advanced (and exotic) requirements, but there is nothing quite as challenging as what the brown belt ranks bring. I remember it being a real period of growth where the training moved on from just block-kick-punch.

Anyone else have some training period they would like revisit?

[sensei8]

Anything after Sandan!! Anything before that was an unnerving grind for me!! Please don’t misunderstand me, I loved everything to the Nth degree during those times. I’d never trade those years for anything!!

Nonetheless, even to this day I’m ashamed of the mind set that I laboriously grinded through.

Why?? 

I despise rank chasing because rank, imho, is not why anyone should be on the floor. Seeking knowledge and experience through improving one’s MA betterment and integrity is far more noble than chasing rank, and that’s exactly what I did…I chased rank; it consumed me!!

I chased rank like some obsessed fiend.

Yet, right after I earned my Sandan, I completely surrendered my worthless mind set of chasing rank. 

I was only 20 years old when I earned my Sandan. I chased after earning my Sandan because I believed that once I earned my Sandan, I could open my own dojo…which is exactly what I did despite anything else.

I knew way back as a JBB that all I wanted to do was to teach and own my own dojo. I was a JBB for 5 long grueling years, however, in my twisted mind, I believed that I needed to earn my Sandan at any cost and at any risk.

So, I would only want to relive those years after I earned my Sandan, and not before.

 

 

Edited November 27 by sensei8

[Wastelander]

My answer is sort of bittersweet, I think. I would like to go back and relive my Shodan phase, for a number of reasons, but the biggest one is that my late Sensei was still alive and in good health, and I would love to have all that time to learn from him again. I would ask so many more questions, and workshop so many more things with him. There's also the fact that, for a long time after getting my brown belt, I just figured I would never actually earn my Shodan, both because I didn't really see it as very important and because I didn't think I was good enough.

[Spartacus Maximus]

This is something I had to do and it is still difficult. A few years ago a change in lineage and instructor meant re-doing and re-living each and every level of training from nothing to 3rd dan. Basically earned all levels in two different lineages/associations of kobayashi shorin ryu (Chibana Chosin’s karate).

Looking back on the experience, it was the best thing to do. Learned more in 1 year with the second than nearly 10 with the first. All native Okinawan teachers on Okinawa and mainland Japan. There is something particularly difficult about re-learning the same thing a different way compared to starting a completely different unknown style where there is nothing to unlearn first.

[Nidan Melbourne]

Right now? I'd go back to my White Belt Days and restart. 

Although to be truthful, I am planning on doing that when I get back into the dojo until I feel like I am worthy of holding the Nidan Grade I earnt nearly 10 years ago.

[KorroddyDude]

For me, the excitement doesn't come at a promotion, but rather at learning a new kata.  I think the best moment for me was learning Hangetsu (Seisan).

[Zaine]

I've been thinking about this question since you posted on Wednesday, going back through my training and trying to figure out if there was a "golden age" of my training. Or, if not a golden age, just a time when I was enraptured in training and want to go back. Or, maybe there could have been a time period that I would want to redo because I think that I could have done better. However, for me, I think I am in the golden age of my training. These are those halcyon days. I don't want to go back, I want to continue living in this moment. I want to continue to grow and learn.

[Spartacus Maximus]

The nagging thought of having key concepts and important fine-points from kata, techniques or bunkai missing; is why starting over made sense. It felt like going back to school and repeating each grade, but it became clear that the instructor is always more important than the martial art, even within the same ryuha/style. 
 

 

[bushido_man96]

This is a tough one.  I have a few thoughts.  One, I'd like to go back to my early days as a beginner, and continue to wrestle alongside learning TKD.  That would have made me a much more well rounded Martial Artist.  I also wish I could go back about 6 years ago, before health problems started affecting my training.  I would have squeezed in as much training as possible.  I'd also go back several years to when I first started Aikido, and would have stayed with it through today.

[ryanryu]

Wow I wasn't expecting such a range of replies! It's been a long and winding road for everyone it seems.

 

Quote

On 11/30/2024 at 3:18 PM, Spartacus Maximus said:

The nagging thought of having key concepts and important fine-points from kata, techniques or bunkai missing; is why starting over made sense. It felt like going back to school and repeating each grade, but it became clear that the instructor is always more important than the martial art, even within the same ryuha/style. 

I wonder what it was like for your Sensei teaching a beginner-but-not-a-beginner. That must've been tricky, but hopefully also rewarding. I went through a similar, but lesser, journey when I moved dojo and my new Sensei worked with me slow and steady through each Goju kata over about two years. It's hard to "reprogram" yourself. It seemed like Sensei really enjoyed reviewing the kata in such detail though.