Yesterday, October 5th, 2015, the eminent philosopher and activist Grace Lee Boggs died at her home in east Detroit. She was 100 years of age. As you may or may not know, this blog was begun during the last month of my time in Detroit. I considered it a kind of creative expression of my thoughts, much inspired by the literal journey I began there and the new sense of self it had given to me, not only in relation to karate. The graffiti I once saw on a wall there sums it up best: “There is no try in DetrOIT”. In other words, DO IT. Whatever it is…a spiritual journey, pursuing your passions, or starting a blog. Do it. Now. Don’t wait. There’s no time. The world needs you. We are the leaders we’ve been waiting for.
And so, with the death of the great Grandmother – the old woman who has seen epochs – the great sage who admonished us with the question, “What time is it on the clock of the world?” – with her passing, comes the passing of this blog. A small pin prick in the vast universe of the internet.
Thank you Grace. For bringing us together. For inspiring me with your ideas. For living long and being brave enough to change with the times…
The following essay was written by Greg Leisure, a reader of this blog and a fellow karate student from Okinawa, Japan. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are presented here in order to provoke intelligent thought and discussion. They do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of The Quantum Karateka. Readers should be thinking for themselves and asking questions. – – Enjoy!
“We can’t be afraid of change. You may feel very secure in the pond that you are in, but if you never venture out of it, you will never know that there is such a thing as an ocean, a sea. Holding onto something that is good for you now, may be the very reason why you don’t have something better.”
― C. JoyBell C.
“Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky
My martial art is karate, and it has been estimated that fifty million people all over the world practice it. I am not sure if that number is accurate, but I am also willing to bet that karate students worldwide are declining in numbers. That is probably due to the rise of professional mixed martial artist fighters and the popularity of MMA, which has captured the eyes of millions on TV.
Does that mean that karate has to disappear as MMA training nudges itself into the martial arts market? I don’t know. It might. But it appears that MMA is not a fad. It has certainly captured the imaginations of many as its popularity continues to grow, and more MMA gyms and their training methods are coming into the scene year after year.
I think karate has to ask itself: Is karate best as an aspect of self-defense, or is karate perfect in its training methods and in need of nothing else for any violent situation that may come about? The logical and intellectually honest answer screams the former. This question lets one clearly see that karate can be an integral part of self-defense and cannot be the most comprehensive on its own. Therefore, if karate wants to thrive and grow stronger in the 21st Century it needs to embrace elements of MMA training.
Some traditionalists may resist, pointing out that karate already has aspects of other martial arts built into it, therefore making it unnecessary to learn new techniques and training methods. And that may be so with a few techniques from other systems scattered around in some of the kata. But realistically those techniques are few and may not be given the training time to become proficient enough to use them. For instance, training those techniques may require mats and if a dojo does not have any, then in all probability such techniques will be neglected and no skill will be developed. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, other styles’ techniques found within kata, even if mastered, do nothing to prepare for attacks from other fighting styles.
Karate, or more accurately, those dojo which have yet not moved toward a more dynamic training method, desperately needs to have an internal renaissance, allowing innovation in order to create more well-rounded fighters who can apply effective techniques in a short amount of time. It is a disservice to students to tell them that they need years of training to master techniques before being able to use them effectively. Keeping karate and its kata as its core, dojo can integrate aspects of MMA. Karate should not concern itself with keeping tradition more than the interests of students looking for effective self-defense.
Hundreds of years ago Okinawans looked west and took seeds from Chinese martial arts and grew them into karate. Having become a proud part of Okinawan culture, karate masters may be reluctant to change, not understanding that they have begun to treat karate more like how Rob Redmond of 24 Fighting Chickens refers to it as, “a cultural preservation society.”
Did the original pioneers of karate intend for it to become a cultural preservation society, or were they concerned with continuing to develop the best system and techniques for fighting that they were capable of?
I do not deny that karate is effective for self-defense, but I do question if it is the best, or if its training cannot be much improved upon in order to make it the best. Surely it can; everything can be improved. And because of that, I wonder if it is time that Okinawan dojo and their instructors look East to America’s MMA and its training methods for developing the fully well-rounded fighter.
I will venture to say that many dojo in America have already admitted to themselves the superior abilities demonstrated by MMA fighters, and have already adopted, or are beginning to adopt their training methods. Other dojo might adopt them more quickly if they had approval by their symbolic head, which is usually a karate master in Okinawa or mainland Japan. It could be the disapproval of these masters not wanting to dilute karate that is keeping many schools from adapting.
Okinawan and Japanese masters could be standing in the way of this potential sea change either because as said, they do not want the purity of karate diluted, or they are unaware of MMA and what it means, or what it could mean for improving karate, self-defense, and the market for future students. However, if masters are humble (which is a character trait that is supposedly admired and encouraged through karate training), then pride should not prevent them from admitting they have things to learn from the West concerning martial arts as self-defense and its training methods. It could very well be however that pride in their art and culture could prevent them from doing what is necessary for the further development of karate for self-defense.
If Okinawan karate masters as heads of their federations do not permit their satellite dojo from incorporating MMA methods into their karate, I would then suggest that if these dojo have the best interest of their students in mind for self-defense purposes, they should then amicably break the relationship and continue forward into the future on their own.
Okinawa does not own karate, even though it is often treated as a Mecca amongst instructors and students. Karate belongs to the world just like any other thing*. Do cars belong to the U.S? Do CEOs of Japanese car manufacturers keep an American automobile company president as their symbolic chairman? Of course not. They are independent from America and produce just as fine quality cars, if not better. Japanese care manufacturers are independent because they have matured. Therefore, dojo around the world need to grow up and get over this feeling of a need to have an Okinawan or Japanese symbolic head. It is just plain flattery at best and condescending at worse to insist on having one.
Like most things, karate does not benefit by allowing it to be under a monopoly. Market wide goods and services prosper when they are free of a single controlling entity. One should not fall under the delusion of having legitimacy just because one’s symbolic head is a master from Okinawa or Japan. One does not need to be recognized by such for stature in the martial arts community. Though it may be getting harder to resist now that the Okinawan prefectural government has begun to promote karate worldwide in an effort to keep its Mecca status amongst karate students, thus ensuring more visitors for economic benefit for the prefecture – and dojo run as businesses.
As a resident of Okinawa for over twenty years, I hope for economic prosperity for the prefecture, as well as the joys of karate becoming known by more people around the world. But I do not feel that the karate world is serving the interests of self-defense by allowing karate to be owned by a particular people or its culture. Such a thing has more to do with a profit motive than a self-defense motive.
It’s an unhealthy relationship when an entity looks to another entity to justify its legitimacy. Many dojo in America, Europe, and South America simply feel they need to have a direct relationship to a living master of his or her own dojo in Okinawa or Japan. Let’s face it, many high ranking foreign martial artists are just as skilled as their Japanese and Okinawan counterparts. Is it genuine modesty that they proclaim to still have a lot to learn from their Okinawan master? Or is the relationship more of a marketing scheme so that they can crow that they have a direct living link to Okinawa?
Look at the websites of karate schools. Lineages, a real live Okinawan sensei and a ‘home’ dojo in Japan are often touted as a point of pride. I can understand such a display when the Okinawan sensei taught the foreign sensei who now has his/her own dojo. But this is harder to accept when the original relationship no longer exists because of a death, or when the teacher’s offspring is left as the dynastic head to govern the relationship. In any case, is such a thing healthy for self-defense training? Or are such relationships based more on money, benefiting head master and satellite master equally due to marketing and bragging rights?
If a dojo fails to accept the superiority of MMA methods and how they can benefit karate because an Okinawan/Japanese master is standing in the way of change, then the student does not benefit. Karate can integrate MMA training methods without losing its essence. Karate dojo can still be karate dojo, but with karate as a core they should move towards adopting MMA training methods alongside their already established methods involving kata, kihon, and waza.
Adopting other methods is in the best tradition of karate and its students, and can lead to a renaissance of the art. By being dynamic, karate will see itself grow. By not doing so, karate will dwindle to irrelevance, digging itself into a grave due to pride, inflexibility, selfishness, and a desire for profit.
“We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it.”
― Rick Warren
Final Review:
Key Words and Concepts for Further Promotion, Thought, and Discussion within Karate and the Martial Arts Community
The key words and concepts I’d like one to remember from this writing are: acting out pre-attack situations, adrenaline dump, gradual violence, sudden violence, psychological reaction, stand-up kumite, ground fighting, progressing from stand-up fighting to ground fighting, one to one fighting, multiple attackers, distancing, timing, positioning, knife attack, pipe/stick attack, stamina, plan B, delusion/overconfidence, claims of self-defense training vs. competition in sports, testing claims with scientific method, ALIVE training, resistance in testing technique, non-cooperation in testing technique, proving technique in kumite, guest instructors and students, open invitation class to other fighters, kumite option during class, dojo environment encouraging kumite, equipment such as floor mats which can be put down and taken up quickly, traditionalist and purist versus reformer and radical, questioning, dynamic training.
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
― Albert Einstein
Yo, I got to give a shout out to my dear beloved friend and former housemate Sarah for this one cause she the one that said it. We were just talking today on the phone and gettin’ caught up with one another and she said this thing which was in reference to her time spent in a meditation course. I thought it was profoundly brilliant:
Practice means failure.
Damn. I like that. Let me break it down for you based on the context of what she was saying and adding my own two-cent thoughts on it:
She was describing how one of her teachers told her that the purpose of mediation practice was to become aware of the unnecessary thinking patterns in our minds in order so we can learn to not get caught up in them. In processing that, my friend thought that this wasn’t about practicing to become successful little zen monks who have perfect empty minds. It was about practicing so that these mistakes would make themselves apparent, thereby “failing” because you are allowing them to clutter your mind. But only in doing so could one learn how to move past them.
The thought that came to my mind was, if I am ever a part of opening a dojo/gym, I’ma paint those three words on the wall in big bold black letters cause that’s what it’s about to me! If your training is about perfection, then that’s no good for when we talk about self-defense and surviving violence. The point of your training is not so that you can defend yourself perfectly or perform some technique without flaws. The point is to force you to make as many mistakes as possible by putting you through live testing. Kinda like forcing yourself to ride a bike for the first time between two points. The point of that practice is so that you can fail, i.e. fall down, scrape yourself, bang your knee, get cut up. Because eventually, you gonna get used to the fact that failing is a part of the game. And that the emphasis is not on avoiding mistakes but on persevering despite them. You dig it? Oh damn that kick to the groin didn’t do shit, he’s still got his hands around my neck! Ooo, there’s a wall behind me that I can slam his face into! Oh, what’s that? It’s a brick on the ground that I’m gonna use to smash him some more if he keeps comin’!
You know what I mean? That’s important man. Especially if you teaching self-defense or surviving violence. No one gives a fuck about your mistakes and failures in a situation like that. On that same token, no one gives a shit about your perfect technique either. The goal is to survive the assault either by escaping or incapacitating the Threat. However that’s done. Of course, with knowledge of the law and fitting the punishment to the crime.
So it’s not “practice makes perfect” cause that sets you up for paralysis. And paralysis is death.
It’s practice means failure, means making mistakes, means fucking up, so that you can learn what works and what doesn’t. There is no competition here. No games to win. No money to be made. No trophies to take home. This is brutal, raw functionality so that you can kick-ass when you need to and get to safety before it’s too late.
I remember reading this article by Iain Abernethy during my time in Detroit and it recently popped up in my head again as pertinent to some questions I was formulating for a karate teacher.
Just wanted to post a link to it here mainly for my reference, but also for any curious karate minds out there. The article was helpful in understanding the specifics of how certain “habitual acts of physical violence” might be perpetrated upon someone and how those acts may be countered with the strategy and technique found within kata. It is a very fun and informative read. Here’s a small excerpt:
“It is quite common to hear statements such as, “If the opponent seizes your wrist, you can respond with this bit of the kata.” Why has the opponent seized your wrist in the first place? It is hardly the most savage of attacks! Do you just stand there so the opponent can do as they please? – “Wait ’till you grab my wrist, then you’re gonna get it!” … Original karate is a very brutal system. Today, we may well face legal consequences as a result of our actions. Be sure to only apply the techniques described above if the situation justifies them.”
Man, when you really begin to explore and understand it, the strategy of karate is really just low-down dirty street-fighting stuff – no joke. This ain’t no sport! Knowing this brutality it’s no wonder then that you’d have to make sure your students were of good upstanding character. Along with really knowing how to hurt someone comes great responsibility.
The Quantum Karateka 