A poem

Paper tigers 
Screaming in white pajamas
Who are they fooling?

That's right folks, a poem. If its connection to modern karate isn't obvious, allow me to fill you in: for the most part, karate training as we know it today does not produce martial artists with functioning self-defensive skill. It produces paper tigers who sweat and kiai (the screaming) in white pajamas (the uniform), believing (or maybe just hoping?) that their punches and kicks will save them when the time comes. Better to realize sooner than later that honesty with one's self is the best policy. How does that saying go?

"A harmful truth is better than a useful lie." - Thomas Mann

Harmful cause it hurts man. It rips away at the thin martial veil covering your eyes. Sinks you to the bottom of yourself. Makes you feel vulnerable. Naked. Fearful. Don't get me wrong: I've been fortunate enough to train in a great dojo with a great down-to-earth Sensei. And I will always be grateful for what I've learned about myself and this art through him. But that don't mean I should shut my mouth if I'm sensing that something is wrong with the pedagogical approach to karate. It can be hard to speak up, especially in a traditional dojo environment where you fall into a culture of reverence for your "master" (I mean, my Sensei is literally a 9th-dan master). Perhaps it's the same kind of reverence that produces strange phenomena like this:

Or this:

I'm not saying that my Sensei would ever tell me to shut-up. I'm saying that it's difficult to speak up when you are locked into these hierarchies of "respect" (which is oftentimes just social conformity to the status quo). But things have got to start changing. What is the use of martial training that has no functional capacity? Not for the indiscriminate use of it on others of course, but for the continued development of a "living karate". The Okinawan art of percussive empty-handed self-defense that my ancestors have cultivated and developed through their genius has now unfortunately become what author Matthew Fox might call, "art for art's sake".

Elbow SMASH!
- Hiji Até